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 Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) will have seven tournaments in the 2026 season.
The announcement was made during the CECAFA Elective General Assembly which took place on February 7th in Djibouti.
“We are glad that the competitions committee came up with a calendar and the Executive Committee passed it, and later it was presented to the Assembly,” said the newly elected CECAFA President Paulos Weldehaimanot Andemariam.
According to the calendar, the season will kick off with the CECAFA U-17 Girls Championship from May 30 to June 14th, 2026.
Yusuf Mossi, the CECAFA Competitions Manager also explained that after failing to host the inaugural CECAFA Beach Soccer Championship last year, the regional body is planning to have the tournament take place July 1-5th this year. “It is long overdue for the Zone to have a Beach Soccer tournament because other Zones like the COSAFA already have one,” added Mossi.
The Zone will also organize the club competition, the CECAFA Kagame Cup from July 18 to August 9th. The competition is normally used to prepare teams in the pre-season ahead of the start of the Confederation of Africa Football Associations (CAF) competitions.
The Zone will also organize the CAF Women’s Champions League for CECAFA qualifiers, African Schools Football Championship CECAFA qualifiers, CAF U-17 African Cup of Nations CECAFA qualifiers and CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations CECAFA qualifiers.
CECAFA 2026 competitions
# CECAFA U-17 Girls Championship (May 14-June 14th)
# CECAFA Beach Soccer Championship (July 1-5)
# CECAFA Kagame Cup (July 18 – August 9th)
# CAF Women’s Champions League – CECAFA Qualifiers
(August 22 – September 6th)
# CAF African Schools Football Championship CECAFA Qualifiers
(August 12-15th)
# U-17 AFCON – CECAFA Qualifiers (October 14-19th)
# U-20 AFCON – CECAFA Qualifiers
(September 19 – October 10th)
The media accreditation application window for media interested in covering the CECAFA Elective General Assembly has opened today and will run till February 2nd, 2026.
The CECAFA Elective General Assembly will take place on Saturday, 7th February 2026 in Djibouti.
Media interested in covering the Assembly will need to process their visas to Djibouti.
Successful applicants will be notified and provided with further information in due course.
-ENDS-
Further Enquiries:
CECAFA Communications
CAF Women Champions League CECAFA Qualifers 2025
Unstoppable JKT Storm CAFWCL CECAFA Qualifier Semis
Tanzania’s JKT Queens marched into the CAF Women’s Champions League CECAFA Zonal Qualifiers semifinals with a 2-0 victory over South Sudan’s Yei Joint Stars at Kasarani Stadium on Thursday.
With a semifinal slot on the line, both sides displayed discipline early on, keeping tight spaces and relying on short passing. JKT looked sharper in attack, but Yei’s goalkeeper Nawal Majok produced brilliant saves to keep her side alive in the opening half. The game went into the break goalless, but full of promise.
The second half saw JKT raise their intensity. Just minutes after the restart, Jamila Rajab broke through Yei’s defense to calmly slot home the opener.
In the 68th minute, Esther Maseke doubled the lead with a curling strike that Majok could only get a hand to. Yei struggled to keep possession and found it hard to recover as JKT grew in confidence with their two-goal cushion.
“We were facing a better side—stronger and more tactical. That’s why we applied a defensive approach,” explained Yei Joint Stars coach Yamba Yves after the match.
The result sealed JKT’s place at the top of Group C, setting up a mouth-watering semifinal clash against hosts Kenya Police Bullets. In the other semifinal, Uganda’s Kampala Queens will take on Rwanda’s Rayon Sports on 14th September.
CAF Women Champions League CECAFA Qualifers 2025
Police Bullets beat Denden FC to Storm CAFWCL CECAFA Qualifiers Semis
Kenya Police Bullets FC marched into the semifinals of the CAF Women’s Champions League CECAFA Zonal Qualifiers after a 2-0 victory over Eritrea’s Denden FC in a Group A clash at Nyayo Stadium.
The home side looked lively from the onset, pressing high and creating several goal-scoring opportunities. Their early dominance paid off in the 7th minute when Emily Kemunto struck to hand Police the lead. Despite squandering more chances, the Bullets doubled their advantage in the 34th minute through Zaina Namuleme, who coolly slotted home from a well-worked move.
Police went into the break 2-0 up, but Denden returned for the second half more organized defensively. The Eritrean side held firm, frustrating Coach Beldine Odemba’s charges, who were left ruing missed opportunities to kill off the game.
Despite enjoying better spells in midfield, Denden FC failed to carve out clear-cut chances to trouble the Bullets’ backline. In the end, the Kenyan champions secured all three points.
Though out of the tournament Denden FC Coach Rezene Gebregiorgis hailed his team composure having settled in from the first game anxiety. With a young team he felt the experience gathered is good for the teams growth and expects to be better with time.
Kenya Police Bullets have now confirmed their place in the semifinals, finishing top of Group A. They now await the winner of Group C who will either be JKT Queens or Yei Joint Stars in the Semi Final stage
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