Kenya is assured of a spot in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after Sierra Leone was suspended from the qualifiers.
According to reports from Ghana where the Confederation of African Football (CAF) was having an Extraordinary Executive Committee meeting on Friday, Sierra Leone has been suspended from the 2019 AFCON qualifiers over failing to meet standards set by the football body.
The decision by CAF means regardless of the outcome in their last match against Ghana in March 2019, Kenya is guaranteed to finish in the top two places in group F.
Group F, now consists of Kenya leading with seven points after three games, followed by Ghana with six points and lastly, Ethiopia, with with a single point.
Only the top two teams in each group are guaranteed to qualify for the 24-team AFCON finals.
According to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president, Nick Mwendwa, the national team is set to make a return to the continental bonanza for the first time since 2004.
“It is because of hard work and we still have to keep going. Now we have to do even better and the job is not to join that AFCON, it is to be consistent in doing it,” he stated.
In a separate decision by CAF, Cameroon was stripped of the rights to host the 2019 championships.
"Today, the @CAF_Online Executive Committee met in Accra, Ghana and has decided that @FecafootOfficie could not host the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations," a tweet from the body’s official Twitter handle announced on Friday.
CAF noted that a number of compliance conditions had not been met after inspection visits of the security committee.
The continental football body will now invite countries to submit official bids to host the tournament set for June 2019 and deliver a verdict on the same by December 31.
