On February 24, the International Football Association (FIFA) announced that it had temporarily suspended Kenya and Zimbabwe from qualifying for the African Cup of Nations.
The reason was that the governments of the countries had interfered in how the football associations were run.
In Zimbabwe’s case, authorities went in November to investigate suspicions of corruption and sexual harassment in the union.
Fifa then pointed out that the accusations should be investigated internally in football and not by the country’s government.
– We had to shut down Kenya and Zimbabwe for the governments’ entry into football. They know what needs to be done to lift the suspension, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in February.
Until two weeks before the qualifiers start in June, the governments of the countries had to back down, but have not done so and are therefore suspended from Fifa’s competitions.
“As a consequence of the failure of Kenya and Zimbabwe to lift Fifa’s suspensions, we have now announced that they will not play in the African Championship off the Ivory Coast in 2023,” the association wrote in a statement.
The groups that Kenya and Zimbabwe would be part of will now be three-team groups.