Guinea Coach Slams CAF Over ‘Unfair’ AFCON Qualifying Draw Ahead of Harambee Stars Clash

Guinea coach Paulo Duarte has hit out at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over what he terms as an “unfair draw” for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Syli National lost 2-1 away to South Africa in their first AFCON 2027 qualifier on Saturday and are set to host Kenya in Conakry on Wednesday but their Portuguese coach is not impressed by the fact that only one other team will emerge from their qualifying group.

With Kenya as co-hosts, Harambee Stars are assured their ticket, leaving South Africa, Guinea and Eritrea to fight for one slot in Group D.

Duarte feels that criteria is unfair even though he remains confident that his team, who missed the 2025 edition, will seal the ticket to the 2027 tournament.

“And I don’t understand how the draw was made when you look at the draw actually with the team of Kenya, Eritrea and South Africa I don’t think it’s fair in terms of the draw,” he told the media after his team’s loss to South Africa as quoted by iDiski Times.

“But we have more games to play and the away game coming and the game at home as well we will do everything to actually get a result. But I feel the way that the draw was made by CAF is not right, it’s not fair.”

Duarte has turned his focus on Wednesday’s match which he has termed a must-win if his team have to remain in the race for the qualification ticket.

“Our objective is to qualify for the AFCON,” he added. “There’s different options in terms of going through the qualification.”

“And obviously today [Saturday] we lost the game which is already scratched but we are going to put everything on our side to actually win the remaining games. But we want to win the remaining games so we can advance to the qualification of the AFCON.”

A loss or even draw with Kenya would further complicate matters for Guinea, especially if South Africa beat Eritrea, given Bafana Bafana currently have three points while Harambee Stars and the Red Sea Camels have one each.