Kenyan Football Federation has written to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), to postpone their Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Comoros over the coronavirus.
The decision comes after the Kenyan government moved to ban all conferences and meetings of more than 15 people of international nature for the next month.
The government also banned flights from specific countries that are affected by the COVID-19 virus as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of the virus in Kenya.
“We have written to Caf seeking to have the upcoming qualifier against Comoros postponed to a later date owing to the coronavirus,” Mwendwa told Goal on Tuesday.
“We are acting as per the directive from the government which banned all meetings involving over 15 people and we have explained to Caf the directive from the government.
“We don’t want to take a risk now that most of the players in the Comoros squad play in France and it is one of the countries which has been affected hard by the virus. We are over 45 million people and it will be wrong if the first case of coronavirus is detected in Kenya because of football.
“We are hoping CAF will listen to our request and call off the match but if they don’t, then we will wait for the government to give the way forward.”
Last week, CAF issued a communique saying football matches in the Africa continent will not go on for some time if the deadly coronavirus continues to increase in Africa. So far coronavirus case has been reported in countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, and Togo.
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.
However, if the match goes ahead, Kenya will miss the services of striker Michael Olunga, who plays for Kashiwa Reysol of Japan, the same as Algerian-based striker Masoud Juma because of the virus.
Kenya is lying second in Group G of the qualifiers after picking 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.
SAVE THE DATE!!
— Football Kenya Federation (@Football_Kenya) February 29, 2020
⚽ #HarambeeStars 🇰🇪 vs 🇰🇲 Comoros
🏆 2021 AFCON Qualifiers
🏟 MISC Kasarani
🗓 March 25, 2020
🕗 7 pm EAT
BELIEVE pic.twitter.com/sDyFS73XR3
https://t.co/4hxsJKvDuo
— Harambee Stars (@harambee__stars) March 9, 2020
Harambee Stars, has on Monday, March 9, 2020, kicked off preparations for the upcoming 2021 AFCON Qualifier match against Comoros at the Kasarani Stadium.#Believe #HarambeeStars #BetikaNaStars
