Court of arbitration rejects Comoros case against Cameroon

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed appeals from the Comoros Football Federation (FFC) over Cameroon’s participation in the forthcoming 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

The FFC argued in the case hearing on 29th May that Cameroon should be excluded from the 2019 Nations Cup finals after they were striped of hosting rights. Egypt was then made hosts of the finals in January after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since Cameroon was not prepared enough to host an expanded 24-team formation.

On February 11, the FFC made an appeal to CAS against CAF’s decision to allow the Central African Nation to participate in the Nations Cup and award them the hosting rights for 2021.

The Court said in a statement that the "FFC had no concrete sporting interest in Cameroon being excluded as doing so "would have no impact on the ranking of the FFC in its qualifying group for the 2019 tournament as that would lead to Malawi's qualification." They stressed that "On the basis of the evidence and arguments presented by the parties, the CAS Panel concludes that the appeals are inadmissible."

Cameroon had got a free pass to the Nations cup as hosts but later had to go through qualifying rounds after Egypt was announced the new hosts, they finished in second place with Morroco leading the group, Malawi in third position and Comoros at the bottom.

The defending champions begin their title defence in Group F against Guinea-Bissau at Ismailia Stadium on June 25, before facing off with four-time champions Ghana on June 29, with their final group encounter coming against Benin on July 2.