Starlets to start off road to AWCON 2022, World Cup 2023 with South Sudan tie

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 10 – National women’s football team Harambee Starlets have been paired with South Sudan in the first round of the qualifiers to the 2022 African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) to be staged in Morocco.

Starlets will kick off the campaign with a game against Africa’s newest women’s football team before playing the second leg away in Juba.

This will be an interesting tie for Starlets as it will pool them against their former coach Florence ‘Dua’ Adhiambo, who is currently the assistant coach of the South Sudanese team.

However, with an experienced squad, new tactician Charles Okere will relish Kenya’s chances of making it into the second round.

An aggregate victory over South Sudan will book Starlets in the second round where they will play the winner between Ethiopia and Uganda with the victor off this round earning a ticket to the Main tournament.

This time round, CAF has zoned the qualifiers as opposed to yester years. A record 44 teams will take part in the qualification matches with the AWCON set to be expanded to a 12 team tournament for the first time.

Eleven winners from the second round will join hosts Morocco.

The 2022 AWCOn will also be used as a qualification tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The semi-finalists from Morocco will each earn a place to the tournament that will be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.