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 6-20^th 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

A VAR workshop organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for members in the CECAFA Zone has today started in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Wallace Karia, the CECAFA President today officially opened the workshop taking place at the Peacock Hotel.

“CAF is carrying out VAR training for all Zones now and this a very good development. This training is very timely for our Zone and we thank CAF for making this happen,” added Karia.

CAF Director of Referee Department Desire Noumandiez Doue is facilitating the workshop which has attracted members from 11 countries including Libya and ends on October 5^th, 2024.

Ali Ahmed, the CECAFA Referees Manager called upon the participants to make good use of the workshop because CAF is determined to have as many referees as possible able to handle the VAR system.

The participants attending the workshop are coming from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and hosts Tanzania.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that the CECAFA Zone will have four teams participating in the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2025.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will host the competition slated for February 1-28^th, 2025.

“The CECAFA Zone, which includes the three host countries, will receive an additional slot due to their automatic qualification as hosts. As a result, the total number of teams qualifying for the final tournament will be increased to 19 teams,” the African Football body announced on Thursday.

CAF also announced that the road to CHAN 2025 will start with the first round of qualifiers running October 25-27, 20224 and the return leg to be played November 1-3, 2024.

The second round of the qualifiers will be played between December 20-22 for the first round, and the return legs December 25-27.

Besides the CECAFA Zone that will have four teams, all the other Zones COSAFA, WAFU A, WAFU B, UNAF and UNIFFAC have been allocated three teams in the competition.

CHAN is a competition that consists of players playing in their respective national Leagues competitions.

Uganda has qualified six times from the seven Editions of the CHAN competitions that have been held since 2009. Rwanda have qualified four times, while Sudan and Ethiopia have each qualified for CHAN three times.

The Executive Director of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) has made it clear that the regional body will keep building capacity in different areas in their quest for more football development.

John Auka Gecheo was speaking during the opening of the General Coordinators Workshop at the Swiss Lenana Mount Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday.

“We wish to build capacity for General Coordinators’ expertise in our member Associations who will not only be resourceful to their Federations in Football development but also to CECAFA, CAF and FIFA,” said Gecheo.

The workshop is being facilitated by CAF Match General Coordinator and Instructor,  Mazen Marzouk, and moderated by Baraka Kizuguto, the CECAFA Football Development Manager.

Marzouk made it clear that the Workshop is very important because it is in line with developing a new crop of General Coordinators in CECAFA region to meet CAF and FIFA international standards.

The workshop which started yesterday and ends on Thursday forms part of the CECAFA objectives in building capacity of football match officials involved in match organization.

Apart from Sudan, all the other CECAFA Member Associations Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Rwanda and Zanzibar have sent two members to attend the Workshop.

Last month CECAFA also held Women’s Executive Leadership Workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.