February 25, 2019
By Sahr Morris Jnr
Sierra Leone women team has been paired with Ivory Coast in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Olympic qualifiers preliminary round.
Despite still serving world football governing body, FIFA suspension, the country has been included in the fixtures with the preliminary ties scheduled to take place in April 2019, with the first and second leg ties coming between April 1 to 9.
Sierra Leone’s participation is still unclear after the male senior team; Leone Stars, was also disqualified from the 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifiers due to the FIFA ban.
If given the greenlight to compete, Sierra Leone will engage Ivory Coast in a two legged tie and in the second round, the winner between Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast will face the winner between Mali and Morocco.
Mali were drawn against Morocco, while Zambia are expected to face a daunting trip to Angola, Algeria take on Chad, Ethiopia have been drawn against Uganda, Tanzania get DR Congo while Gabon slug it out with Congo and Malawi will face Mozambique.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe who were banned from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic have been given a bye till the second round.
The second and third round matches also involving the teams drawn bye are scheduled to be played in September and October 2019 respectively.