CAF confirms Kenya and Zimbabwe expulsion from AFCON Qualifiers

Confederation of African Football (CAF) has thrown Kenya and Zimbabwe out of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote D’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

The decision to eliminate the aforementioned two Nations is a consequence of having failed to have their suspensions by FIFA lifted in time.

It should be noted that 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.

However, this has not been the case given the fact that the first Matchday of the Qualifiers come in the first week of June.

Below are the decisions made by CAF;

Kenya and Zimbabwe, suspended for political interference, have not yet met the criteria required by the FIFA Congress as a prerequisite for lifting their suspension. As a result:

Because of the suspension, the following will apply:

The two associations; Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA)will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition.

Groups C and K will be composed only of three teams and the order of the matches will be maintained in accordance with the match schedule that has been communicated to the teams after the draw.

The first and runner-up teams of those groups will qualify to the final tournament.