The Executive Director of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has said that he is impressed with the fast rate at which women’s football in the Zone is growing.

Auka Gecheo told Cecafaonline during an interview that over the past three years a lot has happened positively in the development and progress of Women’s football in the region.

Speaking at the sidelines of the on-going CAF Women’s Champions League – CECAFA Zone in Uganda, Gecheo said that many of the Member Associations are giving Women football a lot of attention and the changes are very visible.

” When you watch the quality and awareness in the Women’s Champions League qualifiers this year and compare it to 2021 there is a big difference. Women’s teams in the Zone are doing so much and always trying to get better, ” added the CECAFA Executive Director.

Gecheo said there is good growth in women’s football in the region with women playing quality football, having the technical ability and showing good tactical awareness on the pitch.

He made it clear that the fast rate at which women’s football is growing in the Zone speaks volumes about what the Member Associations and Clubs are doing. ” I actually think we stand a great chance of sending more women teams in the region to the international or global competitions, ” added Geceho.

The CECAFA Executive Director pointed out examples of teams like Tanzania’s U-17 who played at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India last year, Simba Queens who reached the semi final stage of the 2022 CAF Women’s Champions League, and the national teams of Uganda and Burundi who played at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Gecheo encouraged the Member Associations and clubs in the region to keep working hard to develop women’s football because he believes there is a lot of potential.

_{Tanzania’s Young Africans SC have today stopped Azam FC 1-0 in the final of the 2023 Azam Sports Federation Cup (Tanzania FA Cup) played at Nkwakwani Stadium in Tanga.}

_{Zambian international Kennedy Musonda netted the lone goal after 14 minutes to ensure the Young Africans SC recorded their treble win in the season after they had earlier won the Community Shield and the Tanzania Premier League titles.}

_{Star player Fiston Mayele did not feature in the match since he is away on international duty with the DR Congo national team ahead of a TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying match.}

_{Nasreddine Nabbi, the Young Africans SC coach praised his players for the hard work they exhibited this season which saw them win all trophies in Tanzania and reaching the final of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup.}

_{“This achievement has been because of the efforts of the management and the hard work by the players and officials. We need to keep aiming higher as a team,” added coach Nabbi.}

_{Musonda who netted the lone goal in the final today said it was a good feeling to score in a Cup final and win the match. “Winning trophies will always motivate us to keep working hard as a team,” added Musonda.}

_{Eng. Hersi Said, the Club President also thanked the management and the team for a job well done in the 2022/2023 season.}

CECAFA members Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have declared joint interest in bidding to host the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2027.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) in a communication on April 27^th, 2023 announced that they had received declaration of interest from six countries including the CECAFA members.

“CAF has received declaration of interest from six countries in the bidding process to select the host nation for the Africa Cup of Nations 2027,” stated the communication from CAF.

The African Football body says by the expiry of the deadline, they received interest to bid from six countries, although the one for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are joint. The other nations that declared interest to bid include; Algeria, Botswana and Egypt

CAF also made it clear that Member Associations will submit their final bids by May 23, 2023. The final bids are expected to entail signed hosting agreement, host cities agreement, government guarantees among others.

After receiving the bids, the inspection visits are expected to take place June 1^st to July 15^th, 2023.

It’s advantage Al Merriekh after they stopped Syria’s Tishreen FC 2-1 in the first leg of the first qualifying round in the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup on Friday night.

Abdulrazzaq Al-Mohamad gave Tishreen FC the lead after only 13 minutes at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

But Al Merriekh fought back strongly to level matters through Al-Jezoli Hussein Nouh Mohamed after 29 minutes. Four minutes later Brazilian striker Paulo Sergio made it 2-1 for Al Merriekh.

The return leg will be played on April 11^th at the same Stadium. Incase Al Merriekh win after two legs, they will face the winners between Al-Quma Al-Jawiya (Iraq) and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Shabab.

Another Sudan Premier League side Al Hilal will return to action on April 10^th in Bharain against Manama FC in the 2^nd leg clash of the first round. Al Hilal won the first leg 3-0 in a match played in Khartoum last month.

The Sudan side will face the winner between CS Sfaxien (Tunisia) and Qatar SC incase they make it to the second qualifying round.

Apart from the teams from Sudan, the other teams from the CECAFA Zone that played in the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup, also known as the King Salman Club Cup are Djibouti’s AS Arta Solar 7 and Horseed FC (Somalia).

The 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup has this year attracted 37 teams from Asia and Africa in the tournament which has a total of US$10 million of prize money.

The winners will bag US$6,000,000, while the runners-up will pocket US $2,500,000. The semi-finalists will take US$200,000, quarter-finalists US$150,000, and the teams in the group stage US$100,000, and Preliminary round US$20,000.