Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat has criticized the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for directing host nations for the 2025 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) to participate in the qualifiers.
Kenya will co-host the eighth edition of the tournament, which brings together domestic-based players, alongside; Uganda and Tanzania from February 1-28 next year. Stars, Uganda Cranes and Taifa Stars have tickets already in their pockets by virtue of being hosts of the tournament but will have to test and build up for the showpiece in the qualifiers.
The decision to have the three countries feature in the qualifiers set for the weekend of Friday 25-27 October and Friday 1-3 November 2024 is one that didn’t sit well with Firat.
QUALIFIERS ARE EXPENSIVE
Reacting to the news from CAF, Firat questioned the importance of the host countries gracing the pre-tournament activities, yet they had automatic qualification. The Turkish, who is expected to retain his place, admitted to having been shocked by CAF’s decision to subject the CECAFA countries in the qualifiers.
He said subjecting Kenya to the qualifiers meant that the team would host her matches away as the country doesn’t have a stadium approved for such matches. Kenya will stage part of the tournament at Kasarani Stadium which is projected to be completed (still under renovations) and ready in November.
“To be honest, I read about it and got confused because nowhere in the world do host nations play qualifiers. Why should we play the qualifiers when we are already there? We are waiting for official communication but it doesn’t make sense to me,” the tactician told SportsBoom.com.
Firat wondered who would foot the costs of travelling for home and away matches in the qualifiers which are aimed at sieving for the best 19 teams in the continent. “We don’t have a facility to host home matches. This means the team has to play qualifiers in a different country. Where will we get the budget for this?”
QUALIFIERS WILL DISRUPT LOCAL LEAGUE
The former Moldovia national team head coach regretted that the local competitions would suffer unnecessary stoppages to pave the way for Stars.
The competitions, especially the top tier, will twice be stopped in October for the Africa Cup Nations qualifier double against Cameroon with a CHAN assignment halting the flow later. A similar occurrence is expected in November, when Stars take on Zimbabwe and Namibia, in the final AFCON qualifiers and CHAN matches.
The stoppages the league will suffer twice as a result of the CHAN qualifiers appeared to irk Firat who is expected to use a good number of local-based players in the AFCON matches as well.
LONG CAMP IN JANUARY GOOD FOR STARS
While some coaches would have welcomed the qualifiers, as they would provide an opportunity to assess the players fully, Firat insists that a long camp in January will be the best option for stars.
Much as camping will disrupt the flow of the league further, Firat says, it will go a long way in preparing the team for the tournament. Kenya will be making her debut in the tournament having failed to qualify for the past editions.
“The players cannot be in two places at the same time and remain focused. It will make more sense to have a long camp and play one or two test matches in January. This will get us ready for the tournament,” added Firat.
“How will our local-based players manage both qualifiers with the congested calendar? When will our leagues have a smooth flow with such stoppages? There are so many questions which I don’t understand, especially on the organization of the CHAN qualifiers,” he said.