2012 Nehru Cup: Is African nation Kenya sure to come?

The 2012 edition of the Nehru Cup is set to be a five nation affair with African sides Cameroon and Kenya plus Asian nations Syria and the Maldives besides hosts India set to take part. The tournament will kick-off on August 22 in New Delhi, but the All India Football Federation has still not confirmed the final line-up of nations to play in the tournament.

There have been confirmations from the Maldives (Football Association of Maldives) and Syria (Syrian Football Association) that their nations will participate in the tournament, while goal.com reported earlier in the day that Cameroon has confirmed their participation with a squad made-up of players from the local Cameroonian league.

But now the AIFF could face problems with the other African participant Kenya. It was clear from the onset that Kenya star Victor Mugabe Wanyama from Celtic Glasgow would not play in the tournament like other of their Europe-based players, but now there is a match which Kenya is supposed to play against Jamaica on August 25 in East Rutherford, New Jersey in the US.

The official Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Twitter account tweeted yesterday: August 25 - Jamaica vs Kenya @ East Rutherford CT

The August 25 date, which is also in the FIFA match calendar, would mean that Kenya would have an official international friendly during the Nehru Cup and if Kenya is considering of having two teams playing the Nehru Cup and the Jamaica friendly then surely the weaker side would be send to India, maybe the Kenya Football Federation is even thinking about sending a junior team.

Earlier Jordan had made a similar offer to send their Under-19 side, which the AIFF correctly turned down. I guess the AIFF need to communicate with Kenya to find out what they are thinking.

All this sounds similar to what happened in earlier editions of the Nehru Cup.