CAS have rejected Comoros' appeal to have Cameroon thrown out of the Africa Cup of Nations ©Getty Images

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have dismissed Comoros' final appeal to have Cameroon thrown out of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) following the west African nation being stripped of the rights to host the tournament.

Cameroon were initially selected to host this summer's tournament, however concerns over delays to infrastructure development and security saw the Confederation of African Football (CAF) move the finals to Egypt.

Cameroon were allowed to continue participating in qualifying however, and finished second in Group B along with Morocco, Malawi and Comoros, earning them one of 24 spots in the tournament.

The Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) were also given hosting rights to the 2021 tournament, despite CAF having a pre-existing agreement with the Ivory Coast to host the event.

In response, the Comoros Football Federation (FFC) filed a claim to CAS that the Cameroon national team should have been disqualified by CAF after FECAFOOT was stripped of hosting rights.

The first appeal was filed by the FFC on January 28 "on the basis of a failure to reach a decision constituting a denial of justice".

Cameroon were stripped of the right to host AFCON 2019 over safety and infrastructure concerns ©Getty Images
Cameroon were stripped of the right to host AFCON 2019 over safety and infrastructure concerns ©Getty Images

The FFC then filed a second appeal on February 11 against CAF's decision not to suspend Cameroon for CAN 2019 and to allocate the organisation of CAN 2021 to FECAFOOT.

The cases were heard by a panel of three CAS arbitrators on May 29 in Lausanne at the organisation's headquarters, but were deemed inadmissible.

CAS ruled that FFC had no legal claim against FECAFOOT, nor did they have any sporting claim - Comoros finished bottom of the qualifying group, and so would not have been allocated Cameroon's spot in the finals regardless of the outcome.

A statement from CAS read: "The Panel referred to the consistent case law of the CAS according to which any legal claim must be based on an interest worthy of protection.

"The panel concluded that the FFC had no concrete sporting interest. Indeed, according to the CAF regulations, the Panel considered that, even in the event of disqualification of the Cameroon national team, such disqualification would have no impact on the ranking of the FFC in its qualifying group for the 2019 CAN and that it was therefore mathematically impossible for it to qualify for this competition.

"The CAS Panel also concluded that the FFC had no sufficient legal interest in requesting that FECAFOOT be suspended by CAF."