Kenya have withdrawn their women’s national team from the Africa Cup of Nations after Confederation of Africa Football turned down their reinstation request.
This means this month’s qualifiers against Uganda will not take place and the Crested Cranes will now automatically qualify for the finals to be held in Morocco in August.
The government-sponsored caretaker committee had appealed to the continent’s football body to allow the Harambee Starlets play the final round qualifier against the Uganda Crested Cranes in Kampala on February 17 after the sport’s governing body in Kenya, the FKF, pulled the team out in January.
Kenyan sports minister Amina Mohammed said last month that a “suspected fraud” was behind the team’s sudden withdrawal from the competition as no such request had been authorised by the government.
But on Wednesday, the committee chairman Justice Aaron Ringera said officials had “exhausted all avenues” to find a solution that would allow the team to participate in the qualifiers.
“We are now left with no other option than to disband the camp and allow the girls to go back home,” Ringera told a news conference.
“Harambee Starlets will not play in the AWCON qualifiers.”
