Swaziland omitted from new CAF tournament

SOCCER - SWAZILAND is amongst a number of countries that have been omitted from the list of those that will participate in the inaugural African Nations Championships (CHAN) to be held in the Ivory Coast early next year.

National Football Association (FA) CEO Frederick Mngomezulu sounded surprised that the country had also been excluded from the tournament.

He stated that they formally indicated their interest to CAF to feature in the tournament.

"We received the dates of the tournament last week and were surprised to learn that we have not been included in the list of countries to feature in it.

We did indicate to CAF that we were interested in participating in this tournament. We realise that a number of other countries like Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Mozambique were also excluded. We have since written to CAF to demand an explanation on this confusion," Mngomezulu said.

Besides Swaziland, and the countries already mentioned above, it has since emerged that even the six Cecafa member states have also not been included in the qualifying rounds of the tournament.

Although no official word has been received from the continental governing body, it appears that the six Cecafa member states that were ejected from the qualifiers did not follow procedures that involved the submission of forms back to Caf.

This means the Cecafa countries, which include Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Eritrea, and Djibouti, will not participate in the new tournament which is confined to local-based players.

The same reason may also apply to some 25 other nations that include among others, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mali, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to a report sourced from kick-off website, the explanation for the missing nations comes from former Rwanda boss and current Caf executive committee member, Celestin Musabyimana.

He apparently told the Rwanda's Times Sport that Cecafa member states as well as other countries which were never considered for this tournament did not fill forms giving them eligibility to take part in the tournament.

"Caf gave out forms to its member states and those who responded positively by filling the forms were drawn to take part in the tournament.

Caf was not forcing any country to participate in this tournament and that is why several countries will miss out on this tournament," Musabyimana is quoted as saying.

Dates of the qualifiers are expected to be announced soon. The tournament is scheduled for January 18 - February 1 next year.