Somalia has pulled out of the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) preliminary round qualifiers that kick-off this weekend.

Yusuf Ahmed, the General Secretary of the Somalia Football Federation (SFF) confirmed to Cecafaonline.com that they will not be able to field a team. “We decided to withdraw because of financial challenges,” explained Ahmed.

Burundi who were meant to face Somalia in the first round of the preliminary stage now earn a walkover where they will face Uganda in the final phase.

Meanwhile, in the other CHAN 2025 qualifiers for the teams in the CECAFA Zone Sudan will host Tanzania in a first leg match to be played on October 27^th, 2024 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The same day South Sudan will play host to Kenya at the Juba National Stadium.

Djibouti who donot have a stadium cleared by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will also host the first leg against Rwanda at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali on Sunday.

The return legs will be played between November 1-3, 2024, while second round matches take centre stage between December 20-22 for the first round, and the return legs December 25-27, 2024.

The tournament will be hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania between February 1-28th, 2025. CECAFA will have four teams play in the CHAN 2024, while all the other Zones COSAFA, WAFU A, WAFU B, UNAF and UNIFFAC will have three teams each.

CECAFA members Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda have made steady improvement in the latest FIFA rankings released on Thursday.

The rankings released by the World Football governing body saw Uganda jump from 90^th to 87^th place with 1269.79 points.

The improvement in the ranking for Uganda comes after the national team defeated Congo Brazzaville 2-0 and stopped South Sudan twice in qualifying matches for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025.

Uganda also remained the best ranked country in the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Zone, and 18^th placed in the African continent.

Sudan who held Ghana in the first leg and best them in the return leg of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025 qualifiers also improved by a huge 10 places to 110^th spot with 1176.2 points. Rwanda also moved by 4 places to 126^th spot with 1130.04 points.

World champions Argentina remained top of the rankings with 1883.5 points, while France are in second place. Morocco remain Africa’s best ranked team at 13^th place with 1627.13 points, while Senegal are in 20^th place.

The other teams in the CECAFA Zone according to their placings saw Kenya drop to 106^th (1195.36 points) place, Tanzania moved to 112^th place (1173.84 points), while Burundi also dropped to 139^th place (1089.49 points).

Ethiopia are placed at 148^th spot (1049.28 points), while South Sudan remained static at 172^nd place (955.67 points). Djibouti and Somalia also remained static at 192^nd and 202^nd places respectively, while Eritrea are the only FIFA member who are un-ranked.

CECAFA representatives Tanzania have exited the on-going CAF Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2024.

The Tanzanian team lost 10-3 to Ghana in their last Group A match played on Tuesday in the Egyptian town of Hurghada.

Tanzania kick started their campaign with a narrow 4-3 defeat to Morocco last week, and suffered another defeat going down 9-3 to hosts Egypt in the second match.

While Egypt and Morocco advanced to the semi-final stage, Tanzania and Ghana were eliminated.

The CECAFA representatives were making their third appearance in the CAF Beach Soccer AFCON in 2018 and 2021 were they also got ejected in the group stage.

The President of Ethiopia H.E Taye Atske Selassie has made it clear that the country will bid to host the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2029.

Selassie was speaking during the CAF 46th Ordinary General Assembly at Sky Light Hotel in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.

He made it clear that Ethiopia is proud to be part of the establishment of CAF back in 1957. “We are heavily investing in sports development and infrastructure, and when given chance we would want to host AFCON 2029,” added The President.

“I take this opportunity to request CAF to endorse Ethiopia to host AFCON 2029,” ended the Ethiopian President Selassie.

Earlier in his remarks, the Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF) President who is also a member of the CAF Executive Committee, Isayas Jira Bosho expressed Ethiopia’s desire to host continental tournaments starting with AFCON 2029.

During the Press Conference after the Assembly, CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe made it clear that he will be proud to see Ethiopia submit their bid to host AFCON 2029. “I encourage the government of Ethiopia and the Ethiopia Football Federation to submit their proposal. Every proposal will be looked at with fairness,” added Dr. Motsepe.

He further continued to point out that Ethiopia is blessed to be led by people who love Football like the Prime Minister. “I wish Ethiopia the very best in their bid to host AFCON 20229,” added the CAF President.

Although Ethiopia last hosted the AFCON in 1976, the CECAFA Zone will have the opportunity to host the AFCON 2027 in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The three countries are also slated to host the TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) 2025.