CECAFA
Cecafa Kagame Cup kicks off in Dar with news over Kenya’s Gor Mahia stealing the limelight
THE Cecafa Kagame Cup Club Championship opens in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Friday and as the football passionate country looked forward to the famous tournament, the biggest talking point was the possibility of Kenya being unrepresented as their champions and one of the region’s biggest clubs, Gor Mahia appeared set not to take part.
Apart from being a feared club in the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) region, Gor Mahia’s recent and current form easily makes them the envy of many. As defending Kenya champions, they are runaway leaders in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) and are in the Group Stage competition of the CAF (Confederation of African Football) Confederation Cup.
At the Kagame Cup, Gor Mahia were slated to clash with fellow CAF Cup Group Stage opponents, Rayon Sports of Rwanda and Tanzania’s Young Africans. But Yanga, bedevilled by internal wrangles, loss of key players in the Tanzania’s transfer window and poor form in the domestic league pulled out. They sighted preparation of their impending CAF Cup clash with, incidentally, Gor Mahia on July 18 in Nairobi as the main reason of staying way form the Kagame Cup.
Then, just on Wednesday, it was the turn of the Gor Mahia camp to serve fears that they would not be coming to Tanzania. The club was facing a player revolt back in Kenya, a number of them laying down tools and refusing to take part in a KPL match in Kisumu, west of the country on Friday and inferring that travel to Tanzania would also be affected.
But the Kenyan newspaper, the ‘Daily Nation’ in its early editions on Thursday night reported that Gor Mahia would honour the Kagame Cup; the news reaching Dar es Salaam and excitement growing that fans would be able to watch Gor Mahia against the local city favourites Simba — the Tanzania Vodacom Premier League champions — Azam, the reigning Kagame Cup champions and Singida United the latest sensation challenging the Simba-Yanga-Azam hegemony.
From Nairobi, the “Nation’ quoted Gor Mahia chief executive officer Lordvick Aduda saying: “We are flying to Dar es Salaam on Friday night after our [KPL] league match [v Sony Sugar at Moi Stadium, Kisumu].”
He added: “The players’ reported strike was uncalled for. It’s a club policy that [unpaid winning] bonuses [the bone of contention and trigger of threatened strike] are paid on top of salaries. They [players] already pocketed Sh37,000 each for winning the SportPesa Super Cup and will receive the rest in the June pay,” he added.
The possible shape of the Gor Mahia team in Dar, however, was on top of excited discussion. More Gor players are reported Tanzania-bound on lucrative signings, following the sensational move of the Kenya club’s most influential forward, Rwanda international Meddie Kagere, to Simba.
Kagere’s reported demand of Sh5 million in order to sign on a new contract with Gor was met with a lower counter-offer by the club and a dangled Sh8 million by Tanzania champions, Simba that lured him to Dar es Salaam where he signed and is now the talk of town as a starter in Simba’s opening Kagame Cup opening match on Saturday against Dakadaha of Somalia.
Simba have also added to their strength former Yanga and Tanzania international goalie Deogratius ‘Dida’ Munishi from Pretoria University (South Africa) and former Azam, El Merreikh (Sudan) Cote d’Ivoire national, defender Pascal Wawa.
The tournament kicks off with two matches on Friday at the Azam [sports] Complex, Chamazi, JKU (Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi) of Zanzibar starting at 2pm against Uganda champions Vipers and at 4pm Kagame Cup holders Azam will be on familiar ground entertaining Kator of South Sudan. Then at 7pm at the National Stadium in Dar, Singida United clash with APR, a former Kagame Cup champion.
On Thursday evening at Peacock Hotel at downtown Dar es Salaam all teams that had arrived met for a pre-tournament briefing from the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Local Organising Committee and the Cecafa Organising Committee. Leodegar Tenga, a past Cecafa President and TFF boss Wallace Karia were among attendants to an address by the tournament director Ahmed Mgoyi and Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye.
“Everything is set, we’ve received all the funds for the competition and all teams, except Gor Mahia, are here,” said Musonye but before the end of the meeting announcing that Gor Mahia will be arriving in Dar on Friday night.
The tournament is laden with highly rated teams including Azam, Simba, Gor Mahia, Vipers, Rayon Sports and APR (Rwanda) and Singida although there are also ‘dark horses’ include Burundi champions Lydia Ludic.
Below are the fixtures:
-Additional reporti
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 4th with the deadline of submission being February 21st, 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 21st, 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 3rd, 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 31st to September 14th, 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 6-20th 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
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