Senegal kicked out of AFCON

Paris - Senegal have been disqualifed from the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after crowd trouble forced their qualifier with Ivory Coast to be abandoned, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) governing body said Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a CAF disciplinary meeting in Cairo after violence flared in Dakar on Saturday, with Ivory Coast players and fans pelted with stones, bottles and chairs, fires lit in the stands and firecrackers thrown.

"As a result, CAF decided to officially confirm the result of the match as 2-0 in favour of Ivory Coast... and to consider Senegal the loser of the match and eliminated from the competition".

Further sanctions may be taken against the east African side, the CAF said in a statement on its website.

The violence erupted after Ivory Coast took a 2-0 lead for a 6-2 aggregate advantage in a qualifier for the finals in South Africa. The match was suspended for 40 minutes while police tried to restore order but the referee abandoned the game.

Senegal football chiefs said on Sunday that they would accept any punishment and apologised to Ivory Coast and their fans.