Vusumuzi DubeMehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE are officially out of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier after the country failed to get its suspension lifted by Fifa.
In a statement released yesterday (Monday), the Confederation of African Football stated that Zimbabwe and Kenya are out of the qualifiers since they had two weeks before the start of the matches to get their suspensions lifted by Fifa. The qualifiers start at the beginning of June.
“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,’’ read the statement from Caf.
Zimbabwe and Kenya were included in the qualifiers on condition that they had get their suspensions lifted by Fifa. The Warriors, who had qualified for three previous editions of the Afcon were drawn in the same group as South Africa, Morocco and Liberia.
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