Kenyan champions Tusker omitted from Caf Champions League draw

The Fifa suspension slapped on Kenyan football in February continued to bite after the Confederation of African Football (Caf) omitted Kenyan club champions Tusker from the list of 32 clubs in Tuesday’s draw for the Caf Champions League.

The draw will be held at Caf’s Cairo headquarters from 5pm, Kenyan time.

First round matches in the Champions League and Confederation Cup will be held on the weekends of September 9 to 11 with the return matches scheduled for September 16-18.

Second round first and second leg matches will be played on October 7-9 and October 14-16, respectively.

The brewers successfully defended their league title on the last day on a goal difference against their closest challengers Kakamega Homeboyz, but will now miss out on the continental tie.

Since Caf is an affiliate of Fifa, the top flight league was not recognised last season thus informing the decision to axe Tusker from the list.

Kenya will also not have a representative in the Caf Confederation Cup, as the FKF Cup was not also played last season.

Though it was expected, Kenya missing representatives in the Caf competitions shows that the players will continue to suffer until the suspension is lifted by Fifa, possibly when things change after a new government takes over after August 8 General Elections.

The world football governing body suspended Kenya in February after Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed disbanded the Nick Mwendwa-led federation due to financial misappropriation last year in September.

Mohamed then initiated talks with Fifa over Kenya reinstatement but the Kenyans football fans are yet to see the white smoke.

This led to even Vihiga Queens who won the Inaugural CAF Cecafa regional Caf qualifiers to miss out this season’s qualifiers.

FKF Transition Committee

Last season, Tusker reached the second round of CAF Champions League after being edged out on 5-0 aggregate by Egyptian side Zamalek.

However, they beat Djibouti side Arta Solar 7 4-1 in the preliminary round.

After dropping out of the Champions League, they were relegated to the play-off of the Caf Confederation Cup where they lost 1-0 to Tunisia giants CS Sfaxien.

he exclusion of Tusker comes only a few days before the FKF Transition Committee which has been in charge of football exits.

The committee is expected to exit on August 14, while it has set August 27 as the date of kick off of the 2021/22 season.