It's Now Official: Harambee Stars, AFCON 2019, Here We Come!

NAIROBI, Kenya- It is now official. Harambee Stars will line up in the finals of the 2019 CAF Africa Cup of Nations next June after the continental governing body confirmed the expulsion of Sierra Leone on Monday.

“The CAF Executive Committee at its meeting on Friday, 30 November 2018 in Accra decided on the case of Sierra Leone in the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

“Sierra Leone is disqualified from the qualifiers and all its matches are annulled,” CAF posted on their website, ascertaining the good news for Kenya who last made the finals in Tunisia 2004 as a 15 year-wait to dine at the high table of African football ended via a statement.

With one round of the 2019 qualifiers left, Stars are assured of finishing among the top two with CAF publishing the Group F standings where Kenya leads with seven points, one above three-time AFCON winners Ghana and Ethiopia trailing with one.

It means the latter cannot catch up with Kenya even if they lose their last qualifier away to Ghana in Accra next year ahead of the June 15 to July 13 showpiece at a venue to be decided.

Stars will face Ghana in March 2019 in their final match of the qualifiers, ahead of the continental showpiece.

Kenya opened her qualifying campaign for the 2019 AFCON by going down 1-2 to Sierra Leone in June last year in a result since annulled before recovering to stun Ghana 1-0 in Nairobi on September 8. 

A barren stalemate in Addis Ababa followed by an emphatic 3-0 defeat of Ethiopia on October 10 and 14 in that order put Stars in charge of their pool and brought them to the cusp of qualification.

It followed the banning from international football of the Sierra Leone federation, SLFA, by FIFA at the beginning of September over State interference in the administration of the game in that country. 

After cancelling their double header against Ghana and the return fixture against Stars in Nairobi, CAF finally made the decision of expelling the West African country last Friday.

Record winners

Record winners Egypt, neighbours Uganda, Madagascar, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, Guinea, Algeria, Mauritania and Ivory Coast are the other nations who have punched their tickets to the 2019 AFCON finals alongside Ghana and Kenya.

Last week, CAF stripped Cameroon the right to stage the expanded 24-team finals over concerns the reigning champions will not be ready to host the biannual showpiece.

South Africa who hosted the competition in 1996 when it was stripped of Kenya and in 2010 are the favourites to stage the next AFCON finals with Morocco and Egypt also in the running.

On Friday, Football Kenya Federation president, Nick Mwendwa, who attended the Executive Committee meeting told reporters the decision to include Stars in the finals had been passed pending official communication from CAF.

Under then head coach, Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee, Stars finished their group that had Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso third at Tunisia 2004, making history when Kenya won her first ever AFCON match when they beat the latter 3-1 in a dead rubber.

The latest development is an upshot for domestic football after CAF reversed its earlier decision to include the national senior team, Harambee Startlets at the just concluded Africa Women Cup of Nation in Ghana.

CAF reinstated Equatorial Guinea who subsequently crashed out of the group stages of the eight-team competition where the Nigeria Super Falcons retained their crown by beating South Africa’s Banyana Banyana 4-3 on penalties when Sunday’s the decider ended 0-0 after extra time.

Starlets had been grouped alongside the finalists and Zambia in the pool stages of the competition when the Equatoguineans were initially expelled for fielding an ineligible player before the CAF Appeals Board rescinded the decision.

Kenya’s appeal at the Court for Arbitration for Sport was turned down, paving way for Equatorial Guinea to play in the AWCON final.