The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has confirmed that twelve teams will tussle it out in the CECAFA Kagame Cup 2024.

Tanzania will host the tournament which runs July 9-21 in Dar es Salaam at the Azam Complex in Chamazi and KMC Stadium in Kinondoni.

The draw for the tournament will be conducted on July 3rd, 2024 in the Azam TV studio in Dar es Salaam. Azam TV are one of the partners of CECAFA.

“Although we had initially planned to have 16 teams, we have been forced to reduce on the numbers and also change the dates because of some challenges. But we believe this tournament will give our teams in the Zone a good platform to prepare well ahead of the 2024/2025 CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup,” says the CECAFA Executive Director John Auka Gecheo.

He made it clear that the Zambia Premier League Champions Red Arrows FC will be the only guest side that will play in the tournament.

The twelve teams will be placed in three different groups with four teams each. The top teams from each group and the best runner-up will automatically qualify for the semi-final stage.

Confirmed teams

Coastal Union FC, Singida Black Stars FC (Tanzania)

Al Hilal, Al Wadi FC (Sudan)

Gor Mahia FC (Kenya)

SC Villa (Uganda)

Djibouti Telkom FC (Djibouti)

Dekedaha FC (Somalia)

APR FC (Rwanda)

JKU SC (Zanzibar)

El Merriekh Bentiu (South Sudan)

Red Arrows FC (Zambia)

Kenya Premier League champions Gor Mahia FC will have a new coach lead them at the regional CECAFA Kagame Cup 2024 slated for July 9-21st in Dar es salaam, Tanzania.

Gor Mahia announced the signing of a new coach Leonardo Martins Neiva on Monday. The experienced coach takes over from Johnathan McKinstry who recently joined Gambia as the national head coach.

The Brazilian who will have the first task of leading the team at the CECAFA Kagame Cup is not new to the African setting after handing SC Vipers (Uganda), Young Africans SC (Tanzania), Al-Merriekh (Sudan) and South Africa’s Platinum Stars Youth side. He has also coached teams in Brazil, Mynmar, Jamaica and Thailand.

Neiva will be assisted by our former player and coach Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno and Michael Nam as they lead Gor Mahia as they attempt to win their fourth CECAFA Kagame Cup trophy.

Top teams from the CECAFA Zone will also use the regional tournament to prepare ahead of the start of the 2024/2025 TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and the TotalEnergies Confederation Cup.

The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has announced that the CECAFA Kagame Cup 2023 will not take place.

Auka Gecheo, the CECAFA Executive Director said on Monday that the competition meant for top teams in the Zone has been cancelled because of a busy CAF/FIFA calendar.

” It is unfortunate that once again we shall not have this tournament this year. We had hope to stage the tournament to also help our teams in the region use to prepare ahead of the CAF competitions which start next month, ” added Gecheo.

The last CECAFA Kagame Cup was held in 2021 when Uganda’s Express FC beat visiting Nyasa Big Bullets FC from Malawi 1-0 in the final played in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Gecheo also made it clear that the CECAFA U-23 Championship that was meant to take place in Ethiopia will now be played next year in January.

” We have made some adjustments to the calendar as we start with the CECAFA U-18 Women’s Championship which kicks off in Tanzania on July 25th, ” added the CECAFA Executive Director.

He stated that the CAF Women’s Champions League for the CECAFA Zone will take place in Uganda August 12-30th, while the CECAFA U-15 Boys Championship takes place November 4-18th in Uganda.

Kenya will host both the CECAFA U-18 Boys Championship between November 25th and December 9th, and the Zonal qualifiers for the Pan African Schools Championship later in December.