The Confederation of African Football has confirmed that both Kenya and Zimbabwe will not participate in the AFCON 23 Qualifiers following failure to  have their suspensions by FIFA withdrawn.

The Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualifiers kick starts on June 1st 2022.

The two Countries were suspended for political interference and have not yet met the criteria required by the FIFA Congress as a prerequisite for lifting their suspension.

CAF had included them in the official draw earlier in April 2022 on condition that the suspension must be lifted two weeks before the commencement of the AFCON Qualifiers.

As a result CAF has issued the following steps to continue the Qualifiers:

1. The two associations; Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition.

2. Groups C and K will be composed only of three teams and the order of the matches will be maintained in accordance with the match schedule that has been communicated to the teams after the draw.

3. The first and runner-up teams of those groups will qualify to the final tournament.