Harambee Stars nominated for Caf award

What you need to know:

  • The winners for the African Player of the Year and Women’s Player of the Year will be decided by a Caf Technical and Development Committee, media experts, legends, coaches of the quarter-finalists of the Caf Champions League Confederation Cup as well as coaches and captains of the national teams of the 54 Member associations that make up the continental football body.
  • The Awards Gala to honour footballers and officials, who distinguished themselves during the year under review, will be held on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

The national football team, Harambee Stars has been nominated for the Team of the Year Award by Caf.

Harambee Stars, who are on the brink of qualifying for next year's Africa Cup of Nations, have been nominated in the category alongside Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

They top group “F” on seven points after four matches. Sebastien Migne's charges were to host Sierra Leone in round five of the qualifiers but the fixture was cancelled by the Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) due to the West African nation’s suspension by Fifa.

As a result, Stars, who needed a win to proceed, could earn a direct ticket should the situation down in Freetown fail to be resolved by the end of the qualifiers in March.

Thirty-four men players and 15 women players have been nominated for the Player of the Year Award among them Ugandan captain Dennis Onyango and last year's winner Egyptian Mohammed Salah, who plays for English Premier League side Liverpool. No Kenyan player has made the provisional list, which will be whittled down in the coming weeks,

The winners for the African Player of the Year and Women’s Player of the Year will be decided by a Caf Technical and Development Committee, media experts, legends, coaches of the quarter-finalists of the Caf Champions League Confederation Cup as well as coaches and captains of the national teams of the 54 Member associations that make up the continental football body.

The Awards Gala to honour footballers and officials, who distinguished themselves during the year under review, will be held on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

Elsewhere, Harambee Stars will find out its status regarding the 2019 Afcon when Caf holds its Extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Accra, Ghana on Friday.

An update on the qualifying rounds for next year's competition is one of the items listed on its agenda, with Sierra Leone's case also on the list of items to be discusssed.

Africa will also know whether Cameroon will remain the hosts. They could lose the rights to stage the 24-nation contest if Caf is not convinced they have made enough progress in preparing for the event.