The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has today unveiled Benni McCarthy as the new national team head coach.

The unveiling of the new coach attended by several officials from FKF, government, sponsors and legends took place this afternoon at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi.

McCarthy who signed a two-year contract will work alongside fellow South Africans Vasilli Manausakis (Assistant coach), Moeneeb Josephs (goalkeepers coach) and Pilela Maposa (Performance Analyst) takes over from Francis Kimanzi who has been the Harambee Stars coach on an interim basis.

The new coach will go straight to work with his first games in charge being in the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Gabon and Gambia this month.

“I am delighted to be here and can’t wait to get started to make Kenya one of the best Football teams,” said the former Bafana Bafana striker who was also joint top scorer at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Egypt’s Hossam Hassan.

He also made it clear that he wants to take all the experience he has garnered working in Europe and in South Africa and put it into practice to make the Kenyan team very competitive and strong. “With the right leaders, right coaches and right work ethics I don’t think that there is anything that can stop us from succeeding with the Kenyan national team,” added McCarthy.

Hussein Mohammed, the FKF President said although many coaches applied for the job, they picked on McCarthy because he has the exposure in Europe and Africa and has the fire in the belly, and the passion that Kenya needs.

“Given his exposure and of course with all the support from the stakeholders, McCarthy will take the Kenyan team far,” added the FKF President who was flanked by his Vice President McDonald Mariga.

McCarthy who won the UEFA Champions League with Porto in 2004 as a player has managed South African sides Cape Town City and AmaZulu FC. He served as an assistant coach at Sint Truiden in Belgium, and was first-team coach in-charge of strikers at Manchester United under Dutch manager Erik Ten Hag.

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 4^th with the deadline of submission being February 21^st, 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 21^st, 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 3^rd, 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 31^st to September 14^th, 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 6-20^th 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