Starlets Awcon hopes up in smoke as CAS rejects appeal

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday rejected Kenya's appeal to be allowed to feature in the 2019 Africa Women Cup of Nations, which begins in Ghana this weekend.

Football Kenya Federation appealed to the Switzerland-based court to force the Confederation of African Football (Caf) to keep Harambee Starlets in the competition.

Kenya did not qualify for the competition but were included after Caf last month suspended Equatorial Guinea for fielding an ineligible player during qualifying matches against Starlets in June.

Equatorial Guinea defeated Kenya 3-2 on aggregate to qualify for the women's Cup of Nations competition in June 2018, but Kenya successfully filed a protest at Caf seeking to disqualify the Central Africans from the competition on the basis they had fielded an ineligible player namely Anette Jacky Messomo.

However that decision was overturned on appeal last week, leaving Kenya out in the cold.

In a statement, FKF explained the case - filed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland last week - had been rejected before getting to a full hearing.

"The final decision by the president of the appeals division was to unfortunately reject our application for provisional measures, and we fully understand and respect the decision of the CAS," Kenya's football federation (FKF) said in a statement.

"We will continue to fight for justice to be done in some way, to repair the harm that has been caused to our Starlets, and the people of our nation."

The Awcon, which also counts as the continental qualifiers to the 2019 Fifa Women's World Cup, gets underway in Ghana on Saturday and ends on December 1.