Afcon 2021 Qualifiers: FKF ready to withdraw Harambee Stars due to lack of funds

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has threatened to withdraw the Harambee Stars from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers if they don’t receive financial support from the government.

FKF president Nick Mwendwa has confirmed to Goal the team might not honour their opening two matches against Egypt and Togo if the Kenyan government does not come in to help.

“We don’t have money, we are broke and I don’t see the team going to camp ahead of the two matches,” Mwendwa told Goal on Tuesday.

“We have handed in our budget to the government and they are yet to respond and remember the matches are almost two weeks away. We have used our money to sponsor the team and we will not continue to do that.”

Mwendwa’s sentiments comes just hours after he told Goal they are also contemplating withdrawing the Harambee Starlets from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers owing to financial constraints.

The Starlets had eliminated Malawi and Ghana in the previous two qualifying rounds and are set to play Zambia in the third qualification round next week.

The Harambee Stars will begin their Afcon qualifying campaign away against Egypt's Pharaohs in November. Kenya, who are in Group G alongside Egypt, Togo and Comoros, will then return to Nairobi to host Togo.

The first and second round of matches will be played back-to-back between November 11 and 19, with the third and fourth round of matches scheduled for August 31-September 8 next year.

Kenya will welcome Comoros in the third round before visiting the island nation a week later for the return leg.

“I know [Fifa] will give us sanctions if we skip the Afcon matches but there is nothing we can do, we don’t have money,” Mwendwa continued.

Egypt have already named the squad for the Kenya match with Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah among the players in the team. Salah is one of the six foreign-based players who have been selected.

Aston Villa midfielder Mahmoud Trezeguet, Sporting Braga forward Ahmed Kouka Hassan, West Bromwich Albion defender Ahmed Hegazi and Besiktas’ Mohamed Elneny are some of the players based outside of Egypt in the squad.