Kenya to miss out on TotalEnergies AFCON 2023 qualifiers

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that Kenya will not play in the group qualifiers of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023.

CAF had included both Kenya and Zimbabwe in the draw only if their suspensions were lifted by the world governing body FIFA.

However, in a communication on May 24^th, CAF said Kenya and Zimbabwe will miss out on the qualifiers because they failed to have their suspensions by FIFA set aside.

“CAF had included them in the official draw earlier in April 2022 on condition that the suspension must be lifted two weeks before their first match day,” said CAF.

Kenya had been placed in Group C alongside Cameroon, Namibia and Burundi, while Zimbabwe was set to play alongside Morocco, South Africa and Liberia in Group K.

Both Kenya and Zimbabwe were suspended for political interference. CAF says the confirmed that Kenya and Zimbabwe are now considered eliminated from the competition and Group C and K will now be composed of three teams each. “The first and runner-up teams of those groups will qualify to the final tournament,” added the communication.

The group qualifiers are set to kick-off on June 1^st, 2022. Teams from the CECAFA Zone that will play in the group stage of the qualifiers include; Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Burundi.