Football: 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers |07 May 2014

Gambia banned, Seychelles through to second round

Seychelles are automatically through to the second qualifying round for the 2015 African Cup of Nations after their first round opponents – Gambia – have been banned.

Seychelles were to play Gambia in the two-legged preliminaries for a place in the qualifiers for the African Nations Cup finals scheduled for Morocco in January 2015. The first leg match was to be played during the weekend of July 18-20 and the second leg from August 1-3.

The draw took place recently in Cairo, Egypt.
Following Gambia's disqualification, Seychelles have automatically gone through to the second qualifying round and will meet the winners of the tie between Swaziland and Sierra Leone for the right to join Cameroon, DR Congo and Ivory Coast in group D of the qualifying group phase.

Speaking to Sports Nation, national team caretaker coach Ulric ‘Keker’ Mathiot said his team will now have more time to prepare.

“Gambia’s disqualification will give us more time to prepare for the second round of matches in July. We have been meeting every Monday for the past three weeks and we are still in the process of identifying new players,” said Mathiot.

He added that his coaching team have to work on “tactical awareness” and that there is a “very good ambiance within the team”.
Fifteen teams will qualify for the 16-nation tournament and will join hosts Morocco in the tournament.
Seychelles have never qualified for the continental tournament.

According to reports, the Confederation of African Football's (Caf) executive committee decided last weekend to suspend the Gambia Football Association from all Caf competitions for two years for deliberately falsifying players' ages.

Last month, The Gambia were disqualified from the qualifiers for the continent's under-20 championship for fielding overage players.

As a result, The Gambia have been banned from all Caf competitions – including the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations – in line with a clause in Caf's regulations.

It states "for any deliberate intention to foul or cheat in any matter involving the falsification of documents, the defaulting association shall be suspended for two years from all Caf competitions”.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website writes that on April 20, The Gambia were disqualified from the African U-20's Championship for fielding five overage players in the qualifier against Liberia on April 6. All five players were born in 1994, while the rules state that the competition is open to players born on or after January 1, 1995.

Caf then launched an investigation into the case of one of those players, Ali Sowe, born in June 1994. He was found to have registered with Caf in 2012 in the Confederation Cup with an identical passport number but a birth date going back to 1988.

Caf president Issa Hayatou has reiterated zero tolerance in such cases of age fraud and has urged members of the Caf executive committee to continue strict reinforcement to rid African football of practices, which Caf claim "violate ethics and morality”.

Gambian clubs will also be banned from playing in Caf's continental competitions for two years.

In a statement released yesterday, the Gambia Football Federation said it will launch an appeal against the Caf decision to ban the country from all its competitions for two years after falsifying

documents about five overage players, a senior official of the GFF has said.

Gambia Football Federation’s second vice-president Kebba Touray has described the ban as a death blow to the nation’s football and adds he hopes Caf would exercise some leniency and reconsider

restoring Gambia’s match fixtures which include a return leg in Banjul with the Liberian U-20 team.

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2015 African Nations Cup first round: Liberia v Lesotho, Kenya v Comoros Islands, Madagascar v Uganda, Mauritania v Equatorial Guinea, Namibia v Congo, Libya v Rwanda, Burundi v Botswana, Central

African Republic v Guinea Bissau, Swaziland v Sierra Leone, Sao Tome e Principe v Benin, Malawi v Chad, Tanzania v Zimbabwe, and Mozambique v South Sudan.

These are all two-legged qualifiers, with the team named first hosting the opening leg on the weekend of May 16-18. The return leg will be played on the weekend of May 30-31 and June 1. The

aggregate winners advance to the second round.

Second round: Liberia or Lesotho v Kenya or Comoros Islands, Madagascar or Uganda v Mauritania or Equatorial Guinea, Namibia or Congo v Libya or Rwanda, Burundi or Botswana v Central African

Republic or Guinea Bissau, Swaziland or Sierra Leone v Seychelles, Sao Tome e Principe or Benin v Malawi or Chad, and Tanzania or Zimbabwe v Mozambique or South Sudan.
These are all two-legged qualifiers with the team named first hosting the opening leg on the weekend of July 18-20. The return leg will be played on the weekend of August 1-3. The aggregate winners advance to the group stage.

The group stages after the preliminaries are as follows:

Group A: Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa – plus winners Namibia vs Congo Brazzaville/Libya vs Rwanda
Group B: Mali, Ethiopia, Algeria – plus winners Sao Tome e Principe vs Benin/Malawi vs Chad
Group C: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Angola – plus winners Liberia vs Lesotho/Kenya vs Comoros Islands
Group D: Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon – plus winners Swaziland vs Sierra Leone/ Seychelles
Group E: Ghana, Guinea, Togo – plus winners Madagascar vs Uganda/Mauritania vs Equatorial Guinea
Group F: Zambia, Niger, Cape Verde Islands – plus winners Tanzania vs Zimbabwe/Mozambique vs South Sudan
Group G: Tunisia, Senegal, Egypt – plus winners Burundi vs Botswana/Central African Republic vs Guinea Bissau



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