The Kenya national under 20 team has been disqualified from the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifiers for fielding ineligible players during the first-leg of the preliminary round away to Sudan in Khartoum.
The Kenyans picked a play a point in Omdurman a fortnight ago after a one all draw but the Sudanese team played the match under protest.
Later, the Sudan FA wrote to CAF complaining that Kenya fielded five players born in 1996 while the competition rules stipulated only players born on or after January 1st 1997 were allowed to play.
“Our appeal was successful and has received communication from CAF that Kenya has been disqualified and therefore Sudan progress to the next round. As a federation and country, We are happy with the decision,” Sudan’s Oussama Elmanaan revealed the news to the media.
The Kenya FA has opted not to appeal the decision even though they distance themselves from age-cheating claiming that the match commissioner had given the team a go-ahead to use players born in 1996.
“In its defence, Kenya’s football governing body – FKF – had demonstrated its proactive efforts requesting for the updated information from several officials at the governing body. In addition to the endeavor to seek updated regulations, the head of the Kenya delegation during the away match, sought the match commissioner’s guidance on the same. The match commissioner ruled that players born in 1996 were eligible to play hence the continuation of the match,” part of the statement from the Kenya FA reads.
The governing body did not find any weight in the excuse and noted that despite the mistake in communication from the Match commissioner, it was the responsibilities of its member federations to strictly adhere to CAF statutes and directives.
Sudan will face the winner between Burundi and Nigeria for a chance to appear in the finals to be held in Zambia early next year.