AFCON 2025 Qualifiers: Harambee Stars pooled in Group J

Kenya will once again play Zimbabwe, this time in the 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers. This is after the Harambee Stars landed in the same group with two COSAFA Cup members, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Kenya will head into the competition with some knowledge of how the two countries play after participating in the COSAFA Cup by invitation.

Kenya, which sent an Under-23 team to the COSAFA Cup in South Africa, beat Zimbabwe 2-0 in their final Group B match of the tournament.

The Harambee Stars will also play five-time AFCON winners, Cameroon, in Group J of the qualifiers.

The group looks almost similar to the 2023 edition, where Kenya sat out due to a FIFA suspension, as they were also drawn against Cameroon and Namibia.

Kenya and Zimbabwe have met twice this year both in the Four Nations Tournament and the COSAFA Cup where Kenya emerged victorious on both occasions.

Another interesting match up in the group will see Kenya face Namibia after the Southern Africa nation pulled out of hosting the 2027 AFCON alongside Botswana which was later awarded to Kenya and her neighbours Uganda and Tanzania.

The draw for the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025, qualifiers was held in Johannesburg on Thursday.

48 African countries will be aiming to qualify for the 35th edition of the biennial Africa showpiece in an attempt to dethrone coach Emerse Fae’s Cote d’Ivoire as continental kings.

The qualifiers will start in September 2024 and end in November 2024.

The first and runners-up in the eleven (11) groups that do not involve tournament hosts Morocco, will gain qualification to the competition.Harambee Stars last featured at the AFCON in Egypt in 2019.

Groups:

Group A: Tunisia, Madagascar, Comoros, Gambia
Group B: Morocco, Gabon,Central Africa Republic, Lesotho
Group C: Egypt, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Botswana
Group D: Nigeria, Benin Libya, Rwanda
Group E: Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Liberia
Group F: Ghana, Angola, Sudan, Niger
Group G: Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Chad
Group H: DR Congo, Guinea, Tanzania, Ethiopia
Group I: Mali, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Eswatini
Group J: Cameroon, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe
Group K: South Africa, Uganda, Congo, South Sudan
Group L: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Burundi