The Black Stars of Ghana will get clarity about their AFCON qualifying group by the end of this week, Sources within the corridors of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have told FINDER Sports.
Ghana’s qualifying campaign has been rocked by uncertainty following the decision by CAF and FIFA to suspend the Sierra Leone Football Association due to governmental interference.
The Black Stars were due to play the Leone Stars in a double-header last Thursday and yesterday but those games were called off after Sierra Leone failed to follow through with the set conditions which would have allowed for FIFA to lift the ban for the game to have gone ahead.
Last Tuesday, Fifa rejected a request by the SLFA – signed by Isha Johansen in her capacity as President – to lift the suspension imposed last week.
The request was made after an emergency meeting of SLFA and sport ministry officials – featuring both excluded officials – which was aimed at trying to convince Fifa to rescind the ban.
But Fifa’s basic demand that the President and General Secretary be reinstated was not met, leading to the cancellation of the matches.
Whispers within the corridors of CAF suggests that Sierra Leone will be expunged from the Group, making it a three-team group with the winner and runner up qualifying for next year’s AFCON to be staged in Cameroon.
As it stands now, Kenya and Ethiopia are the two countries qualifying to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations from the qualification Group F as the Black Stars are pushed to the third position in the latest standings on CAF’s website.
Only group winners and runner-ups qualify to the AFCON finals in Cameroon and a total of 24 teams will participate for the first time in the competition’s history.
The Harambee Stars have picked four points from the back to back games against Ethiopia taking Sebastien Migne’s side to the summit of Group F on seven points while Ethiopia sit second with four points.
