Zimbabwe and Kenya have officially been disqualified from the qualification for the 2023 African Cup of Nations.
The decision was confirmed on Monday evening by the Confederation of African Football after both the Warriors and Kenya failed to solve their suspension from FIFA.
As a consequence, Bafana Bafana’s AFCON 2023 qualification group will only consisted of three team, namely South African, Morocco and Liberia, with the first two teams from the group booking their tickets for the tournament in Ivory Coast.
CAF’s full statement:
“As a consequence of having failed to have their suspensions by FIFA set aside, CAF has confirmed that both Kenya and Zimbabwe will not participate in the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualifiers.
“The qualifiers will kick-off on the first day of June 2022.
“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.
“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.”
You can read more background information on Zimbabwe’s issues and why the Zimbabwean Football Association has been suspended by FIFA on Tuesday’s iDiski Times newspaper, edition 55.
