AFCON
CAS REJECTS KENYA’S APPEAL ON AWCON
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday rejected Kenya’s appeal to be allowed to feature in the 2019 Africa Women Cup of Nations, which started Saturday evening in Ghana.
According to Daily Nation of Kenya, Football Kenya Federation appealed to the Switzerland-based court to force the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to keep Harambee Starlets in the competition.
Kenya did not qualify for the competition but were included after CAF last month suspended Equatorial Guinea for fielding an ineligible player during qualifying matches against Starlets in June.
Equatorial Guinea defeated Kenya 3-2 on aggregate to qualify for the women’s Cup of Nations competition in June 2018, but Kenya successfully filed a protest at Caf seeking to disqualify the Central Africans from the competition on the basis they had fielded an ineligible player namely Anette Jacky Messomo.
However that decision was overturned on appeal last week, leaving Kenya out in the cold.
In a statement, FKF explained the case – filed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland last week – had been rejected before getting to a full hearing.
“The final decision by the president of the appeals division was to unfortunately reject our application for provisional measures, and we fully understand and respect the decision of the CAS,” Kenya’s football federation (FKF) said in a statement.
“We will continue to fight for justice to be done in some way, to repair the harm that has been caused to our Starlets, and the people of our nation.”
The Awcon, which also counts as the continental qualifiers to the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup, gets underway in Ghana on Saturday and ends on December 1.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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