Eritrea Officially Confirms Withdrawal From 2023 AFCON Qualifiers

Eritrea has officially confirmed it will not participate in the upcoming qualifiers to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations to take part in Ivory Coast.

The Red Sea Camels were to commence their campaign in a two-legged preliminary round playoff tie against Botswana to be played this month.

In an interview with CECAFA website, Eritrea FA president Abraham Esayas confirmed the new development which he blamed on communications challenges.

“We have pulled out because we have not prepared a team. We have also had several communication challenges which could not make it possible for us to prepare a team,” said Esayas.

Eritrea national team has been inactive since 2019 when they played in the preliminary round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 against Namibia in September 2019.

The Horn of Africa nation was among part of 11 other bottom placed teams to determine the six teams that will join 42 sides for the group stage draw.

Eritrea also withdrew from this month’s second round of qualifying for the Women’s Under-17 World Cup.

It’s worth noting that the Red Sea Camels has a history of pulling out of the CAF Tournaments as they withdrew from 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

They were set to face South Sudan the preliminary round qualifier matches and as a result, the Bright Stars qualified to the next round of the qualification competition.