CAF suggested, in a statement on its website, that it was admitting Ghana and the nine others in the qualifiers even after they had missed the deadline for registration because it is a new competition.
“The CAF Executive Committee registered the request for participation past-deadline of 10 national associations wishing to take part at the competition, after the establishment of the fixtures of the Competitions on February 24, 2008.
“Faced with this eagerness and seeing that this is a new competition, the CAF Executive Committee decided, exceptionally, to accept these 10 engagements and authorised CAF Secretariat to amend the fixtures accordingly,” the CAF statement said.
The reinstatement of Ghana will be a major relief to Ghana football officials who had been under enormous pressure after the original fixture list for the qualifiers without the country’s name.
There is no word, however, on who Ghana will play to qualify for the tournament, which is meant exclusively for players who ply their trade in the domestic leagues of their countries.
Others to receive late entry are Gambia (Zone west A), Togo (Zone West B), Kenya and Eritrea (Central East Zone), and Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Southern Zone).