The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has put off Harambee Starlets dream of featuring in their second consecutive Africa Women’s Cup of Nations after rejecting their appeal to have Equatorial Guinea relinquish their spot in the finals in their favour.
Starlets thought they had sealed a place in the finals starting today to December 1 in Ghana but the Confederation of African Football surprisingly reinstated the West Africans, leaving Starlets in the dark.
Kenya had been confirmed for the finals after lodging a protest to have Equatorial Guinea barred from the event for fielding an ineligible player.
The ruling saw Kenya kick off preparations for tournament as head coach David Ouma summoned players to a residential camp despite the inadequate funding.
However, with less than two weeks to the finals, Caf reinstated Guinea, forcing Starlets to unsuccessfully appeal again CAS.
Kenya had wanted the tournament dates to be pushed back to pave way for the matter to be heard and determined but despite CAS being aware that Equatorial Guinea were serving Fifa ban over the same player’s ineligibility ignored Kenya’s plea.
The decision has attracted Football Kenya Federation’s anger who have vowed to push the matter to the tail end. In a statement, FKF said the spirit of fair play was overlooked. “The final decision by the president of the appeals board was to reject our application for provisional measures and we fully understand and respect the decision of CAS,” said the statement in part.
“This does not end the case. Our appeal against Caf is still open and we continue to fight for justice to be done same way to repair the harm that has been caused to our Stars and the people of our nation.”
Further the federation stated: “We will continue to fight at CAS in order to demonstrate that the federation and we as the people will not sit back and simply accept routine and blatant regulatory breaches that impact the progression of our teams, national or otherwise.”