Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya is missing from the list of countries that have confirmed participation in the 2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament (WOFT) qualifiers, according to the latest Confederation of African Football (Caf) release.
This implies that Harambee Starlets, the national women’s team, will not participate in the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Football Kenya Federation (FKF) secretary-general, Barry Otieno, has dismissed claims that lack of funds is the reason Starlets will not honour the Games.
“The national team is funded by the Government of Kenya. No one from the government has told us they are broke and won’t fund the Starlets. I fail to understand where these rumours are coming from,” said Barry.
He cited Fifa’s suspension and Kenya sending an application to take part in the games late as the reasons behind the latest development. “When the registration process started, Kenya was still serving the suspension. Our application also came late and so I think those could be the reasons behind our exclusion,” the SG noted.
Barry also added that the federation will engage Caf to understand the reasons for the omission. “I will contact Caf to get more explanation why Kenya is missing from the list and see if there is anything that can be done. Thereafter I will provide a detailed response on the case,” he added.
Starlets have not played a single match since Fifa suspended Kenya from all football activities in February last year. After the suspension was lifted, Starlets were scheduled to play a friendly against Albania in April but the match was aborted due to logistical challenges.
Twenty-five countries have confirmed their participation in the qualifiers including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, RD Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Ghana.
Others are—Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zambia. The draw for the qualifiers will be conducted on May 30 in Cairo, Egypt at 10GMT.
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