Harambee Stars set to learn their fate as CAF conducts AFCON 2025 qualifying draw

FOOTBALL Harambee Stars set to learn their fate as CAF conducts AFCON 2025 qualifying draw

Joel Omotto 15:42 - 19.02.2024

Harambee Stars will learn who they will face in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers when CAF conducts the draw in Cairo on Tuesday.

Harambee Stars will learn their opponents in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers when Confederation of African Football (CAF) conducts the draw in Cairo on Tuesday.

Kenya are exempted from the preliminary round due to their FIFA ranking (ranked 111 globally) and will go straight into the group stage of which their opponents will be known on Tuesday.

52 teams will take place in the qualifiers, with 44 already assured of their place at the group stage, while eight lowest ranked teams will square it off in March to determine the four that will join them.

Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome, Chad, Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia, and Eswatini are the eight teams who will have to qualify from the preliminary round of qualifiers following matches in the next international window between March 18 and 26 to seal their place in the group stage of the qualifiers set to kick off place in September.

Kenya will be hoping to seal a place at the 2025 tournament after missing the delayed 2023 edition having been kicked out of the qualifying campaign following a FIFA ban in early 2022.

Harambee Stars had initially been in the same group with Cameroon, Namibia and Burundi but the ban put paid to their campaign and they will want to make up for lost time.

Engin Firat’s men will hope for a favourable draw on Tuesday given the improved level of football displayed at the AFCON 2023 where there were a host of upsets from the so-called minnows.

The qualifiers are scheduled to start in September where the first two matches will be played followed by two more in October before the final round is played in November.

Kenya last featured at the AFCON in 2019 in Egypt when they suffered group stage elimination following losses to Senegal and Algeria coupled with a win against Tanzania.

It is still not known when the 2025 tournament, set to be hosted by Morocco, will take place since the proposed date of between June and July clashes with the expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, scheduled between June 15 and July 13, 2025, in the United States.

This is giving CAF a headache as to when the tournament will be held given Morocco want to stage it in the summer.

That could see the tournament staged in January and February again although there have been reports that FIFA president Gianni Infantino is proposing March 2025 or January 2026.

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