CECAFA launch Under 15 Tournament in Asmara

The Council of East and Central Africa Football Association launched the CECAFA Under 15 football tournament in Asmara, Eritrea today.
At a Ceremony in Asmara, CECAFA Secretary General Nicholas Musonye said the inaugural tournament will be attended by all the CECAFA member Associations who endorsed the event at their meeting in Dar e salaam, Tanzania last month.
The event to be sponsored by FIFA Forward Programme initiative will be the first Under 15 tournament to be staged in Africa. According to Musonye, the tournament is to help the region prepare for the Under 17 AFCON qualifiers that start early next year.
The initiative to launch the 15 event has been backed by CAF President Ahmad who attended the CECAFA meeting in Dar last month.
At a ceremony in Asmara today, Musonye met the Director of Sports and Culture Amb Zemede Tecle and the President of the Eritrean National Football Federation (ENFF) Esayas Abraham.
Commissioner Tecle confirmed that Eritrea was ready to host CECAFA and acknowledged the importance of the tournament to the people of Eritrea and the region as a whole. He said the Government of Eritrea will support CECAFA and ENFF to ensure that the event is a success.
Esayas said his committee had already formed committees to coordinate the successful staging of the event.
Musonye praised Eritrea and Ethiopia for making peace, confirming that the Ethiopia Football Federation had already confirmed their participation in the competition.
The event will kick off in Asmara August 17th to September 1st. Eritrea last hosted a cecafa event in 2010 on the occasion of the 2010 Under 20 Challenge cup

cecafa secretary General Nicholas Musonye (c) with Eritrean Sports Commissioner Zemede Tecle (r) ENNF President Esayas Abrahama in Asmara.