Kenya to play DRC as Atieno cancels Nigeria deal

Harambee Starlet's Neddy Achieng, right, challenge SA's Dlamini Amanda during return leg match at Machakos stadium on Sunday, August 2, 2015. PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO.

National women’s football team, Harambee Starlets, will kick off their 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualifiers against Democratic Republic of Congo at home in the first round on March 6.

The defending champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria (who have played at every edition of World Cup since 1999), Ghana, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa’s Banyana Banyana (who are the continental representatives at the Rio Olympics) received byes in the first round.
Following the withdrawal of Togo from the qualifiers, the Lady Fennecs of Algeria will face off against Ethiopia’s Lucy in the first round.

The winner of this round will face either Kenya or DRC in the second round.
In other fixtures, Mali will battle it out against Morocco while Tanzania will play against Zimbabwe in another encounter.
Zambia will face Namibia with Libya playing Egypt while Senegal will play against Guinea. Burkina Faso will host Tunisia with Botswana entertaining Mauritius in the first round.

The final tournament will be held in Cameroon’s cities Yaoundé and Limbe from November 19 to 3 December.

Meanwhile, Kenyan international Neddy Atieno has cancelled her professional stint with Nigeria’s premier league side Sunshine Queens.

After signing a two-year deal with the West Africa side last year, Atieno told Feverpitch it was a stressing period in her life and that she decided to call it quits because the club officials did not honour the contract.

“The officials were not ready to get a work permit for me. For two months in Nigeria, I was paid only one month when I was leaving for Nairobi. They promised to pay the remaining monies later but they reneged,” she said.

Atieno laments that it reached a point when she was requesting for financial assistance from home for her upkeep.

“The club had not paid players for six months by the time I joined. I only played three friendly matches and was not able to take part in the super league and the national league because I didn’t have a permit,” she added.

The Kenya Methodist University student led the under-20 national team to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers in 2012.