CECAFA
2019 Busy year for Cecafa as Fifa boosts East Africa Region
Uganda will host this year’s Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in December as Rwanda hosts the Cecafa Kagame Cup for clubs in July.
Kenya will host the region’s women’s under-17 tournament.
These were among the decisions that were passed at a consultative meeting of the Confederation of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) members that was held in Addis Ababa on Monday on the sidelines of the African Union summit.
Fifa President Gianni Infantino speaks during the 32nd African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa on February 10, 2019. PHOTO | SIMON MAINA | AFP
The meeting was presided over by world football governing body, Fifa, President Gianni Infantino and Confederation of African Football (Caf) President Ahmad Ahmad.
Cecafa member representatives also attended the inauguration of the Regional Fifa Development Office in Addis Ababa.
The new office will cater for the development programmes of Cecafa and the North Zone, and will be the third regional office after similar offices were set up in Dakar and Johannesburg.
The main agenda at the meeting was the incorporation of new competitions, and members endorsed the hosting of a total of seven competitions in the Cecafa zone this year which will commence in June and run back-to-back to December.
The activities endorsed for this year and funded by Fifa are the Under-17 Challenge Cup in Eritrea, Under-17 Women’s Challenge Cup in Kenya, Under-20 Women Challenge Cup in Uganda, Senior Women Challenge Cup in Tanzania and Under-20 men’s Challenge Cup in Uganda.
With Kagame Cup getting sponsorship from Azam TV and its patron Rwanda president Paul Kagame, the members states agreed to contribute Sh 2 million (20,000 USD) each to a solidarity fund that will guarantee to the staging of the oldest tournament in the continent.
“The members resolved to ensure that they will contribute to a solidarity fund that will guarantee the staging of the Senior Challenge Cup annually,” Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye said in a statement.
The Kagame Cup is sponsored by Azam TV and Cecafa Patron, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.
“During the same meeting, the members vowed to work hard to ensure that the zone is well represented at the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt where Kenya and Uganda have already qualified while Tanzania and Burundi have equal chances of qualifying,” Musonye added.
In Addis, Infantino also addressed the African Union summit, the first time a Fifa president was addressing the AU which comprises of 55 countries and which is now chaired by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt.
The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has officially opened the bidding process for their competitions for the 2025 calendar.
The bidding process was officially opened by CECAFA on February 4th with the deadline of submission being February 21st, 2025.
Yusuf Mossi, the CECAFA Competitions Director made it clear in the document that any Member Association that will be interested in hosting any tournament must meet all requirements in the bidding process.
“In order to be considered to host any of the competitions, kindly compete the attached bid documents clearly indicating which competition and submit to CECAFA by February 21st, 2025,” said part of the document.
The bid includes expression of interest, host bid questionnaire and the Budget document. CECAFA will announce the host Member Associations of the various competitions on March 3rd, 2025.
The seven tournaments lined up for the 2025 calendar include; CECAFA Beach Soccer Championship to take place in Kilifi County in Kenya, CECAFA Senior Women’s Challenge Cup, CECAFA Senior men’s Challenge Cup, Dar Port Kagame Cup in Tanzania, CAF Women’s Champions League qualifiers, CECAFA U-17 Boys Championship and CAF African Schools Football Championship.
The CECAFA Ordinary Assembly has approved seven tournaments to be staged by the Zone in the 2025 calendar.
During the non-elective Ordinary General Assembly held at the Imperial Plaza Hotel in Juba, South Sudan on Wednesday, the delegates approved the five competitions.
Auka John Gecheo who presented the competitions report on behalf of the chairman of the Committee Isayas Jira Bosho, pointed out that the tournaments have been planned after considering the different CAF and FIFA tournaments on the International calendar.
The Zonal body agreed to have the inaugural CECAFA Beach Soccer Competition in Kenya , while the CECAFA Senior Women’s Challenge and the CECAFA Senior Men’s Challenge Cup have also been lined up.
The Dar Port Kagame Cup 2025 will be expected to take place August 31st to September 14th, and the CAF Women’s Champions League, CECAFA qualifiers. The Member Association the hosts the CECAFA U-17 Boys Championship will also be expected to host the CAF African Schools Football Championship qualifiers.
However, Member Associations have been asked to apply to host any of the tournaments that have been planned to run in the 2025 calendar.
Ethiopia’s U-20 side defeated Djibouti 2-0 in an international friendly match played at the Abebe Bikila Stadium on Monday.
The two teams used the match to prepare ahead of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) U-20 CECAFA qualifiers slated for October 6-20th in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Nathael Solomon gave the hosts the lead after 43 minutes, and Degfie Alemu made it 2-0 three minutes into the second half.
The Djibouti team tried to push ahead to find some goal but failed to beat the Ethiopian defending line.
The Zonal qualifiers will kick start with a Group A match between Sudan and Djibouti at the Azam Complex, while hosts Tanzania will battle Kenya in a Group A match at the KMC Stadium the same day.
The 2022 runners-up South Sudan will open their Group B campaign against Burundi at the KMC Stadium, while reigning champions Uganda face Ethiopia in a match to be played at the Azam Complex all on October 7th. Tanzania will return to action on October 8th against Djibouti, the same day Sudan face Rwanda.
Nine teams will participate in the tournament with the best two teams qualifying to represent the Zone at the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations U-20 2025.
Group A: Tanzania, Sudan, Rwanda, Djibouti, Kenya
Group B: Uganda, South Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia
A VAR workshop organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for members in the CECAFA Zone has today started in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Wallace Karia, the CECAFA President today officially opened the workshop taking place at the Peacock Hotel.
“CAF is carrying out VAR training for all Zones now and this a very good development. This training is very timely for our Zone and we thank CAF for making this happen,” added Karia.
CAF Director of Referee Department Desire Noumandiez Doue is facilitating the workshop which has attracted members from 11 countries including Libya and ends on October 5th, 2024.
Ali Ahmed, the CECAFA Referees Manager called upon the participants to make good use of the workshop because CAF is determined to have as many referees as possible able to handle the VAR system.
The participants attending the workshop are coming from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and hosts Tanzania.
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