The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has stated they are still waiting for Caf to reply to their request to postpone their Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying match against Comoros owing to the effect of the coronavirus outbreak.
On Wednesday, Caf sent a circular indicating all matches in their schedule should continue as planned and gave the option of playing matches behind closed doors if the problem persists.
“Caf wishes to inform Member Associations and the entire African football family that we are closely monitoring the evolution of the coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world and in particular the African continent,” Caf said in a statement published on their official website.
“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), no African country until to date has been declared high risk.
“Consequently, Caf has decided to maintain the schedule of all competitions.
"Also, Caf has been informed of the restrictive measures taken by the authorities of some Member Associations and is in contact to find solutions on a case-by-case basis, with the option of the organization of matches behind closed doors.
Next matches
“Regarding the Total African Nations Championship (Chan) Cameroon 2020, a delegation from the Caf Medical Committee is scheduled to visit Cameroon from March 14 to 15, 2020.
"The purpose of this mission is to assess all the preventive measures taken by the Local Organizing Committee. The competition is scheduled for April 4-25 2020.”
In reaction to the latest statement by Caf, FKF president Nick Mwendwa has insisted they are waiting for the African body to respond directly to them because “we had already put in a request to have our game postponed.”
“I have not seen any response from Caf, you are the one telling me that Caf have responded,” Mwendwa told Goal when asked about the latest response from Caf.
“All we want is for Caf to reply to our request, we wrote to them and we are waiting to hear from them.
"I don’t know about the statement on Caf website, I know they will reply to us soon and we are waiting, from there we will know what next if Kenya will play against Comoros or not.”
In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, the Kenyan government has issued tough directives, including Kenyan sports teams being banned from traveling outside the country, meaning the Harambee Stars versus Comoros return leg on March 29 will not be played if the status quo remains.
So far no COVID-19 cases have not been reported in Kenya, but countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, and Morocco have had isolated cases.
The Harambee Stars squad of local-based players have already moved to camp ahead of the qualifier with foreign-based players set to join in the coming week.
Kenya is second in Group G of the qualifiers after picking up two draws against Egypt (away in Cairo) and Togo in Nairobi, while Comoros are sitting top on four points after beating Togo in Lome and drawing with Egypt.