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.