Ninje: CECAFA mission possible

MUCH focus among football fans in the country will be directed towards the Council of Central and East Africa Football Association (CECAFA) Senior Challenge Cup, which gets underway tomorrow in Kenya.

It has been a long wait to this prestigious tournament in the region, as it bounces back after two years of absence. Surprises are likely to happen mainly considering the fact that teams which will fight for the championship have undergone serious transitions, with many of them injecting young talents.

Mainland side, Kilimanjaro Stars which have already landed in Kenya, will be flying high the country’s colours, while at the same time eyeing to win the honour for the fourth time.

Another area which is eagerly awaited to be seen by sports fraternity is how the new Kilimanjaro Stars Head Coach, Ammy Ninje will execute his responsibilities on the touch line, as he will be in charge of the team for the first time throughout the competition.

In most of his press conferences that Ninje, who possess Class A coaching licence had prior to the Kenya trip, he was always positive about his cream of players that they will do a good job in foreign territory no matter what happens.

“We do not care about other teams which will compete in the tournament, we only care about ourselves and how to win the title,” Ninje said confidently at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA), while addressing press shortly before the team’s departure to Kenya on Thursday.

Opening their campaign against Libya, who are better placed on FIFA rankings than Tanzania, it will be a good opportunity to defeat them in order to instil hope and fighting spirit amongst the players.

It is well known that getting positive results from the first match of any tournament usually builds a sense of confidence to both players and the technical bench, unlike the opposite.

After playing Libya, Stars will again be subjected to another must win encounter and this time around, they will face their own brothers Zanzibar Heroes on Wednesday in a crucial tie as evidenced when these two teams play, the competitive nature on the pitch becomes high.

After Zanzibar, on Saturday, the Mainlanders will face Rwanda in yet another classic battle before confronting hosts Kenya two days later in Stars last game of their group.

Tanzania last won CECAFA title in 2010 after beating the guest team Ivory Coast 1-0 with Shadrack Nsajigwa scoring the lonely goal through a spot-kick in 41st minute of the first half, at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

A year later in 2011, Tanzania again hosted the tournament, but the home team finished fourth after losing 2-1 to Sudan in third-place play off match. Uganda claimed the trophy after defeating Rwanda 3-2 on penalties.

As it stands, the Cranes of Uganda remain the most successful side as far as clinching CECAFA silverware is concerned, having won it 14 times against Kenya, who have claimed it six times. The victory for Kilimanjaro Stars during this year’s CECAFA edition completely relies in their own hands and the prospect of doing better is much alive than ever before.

Meanwhile, few days after Zimbabwe national team confirmed withdrawal from participating in the 2017 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, Nicholas Musonye has slammed them.

The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) announced on Wednesday that they won’t take part in the event due in Kenya starting this weekend citing insecurity - something that didn’t go well with Musonye, the Council’s General Secretary.

“Zimbabwe should just shut up if they do not want to come for the tournament,” Musonye told the press on Wednesday. “They have their issues which are bigger than ours and cannot talk about the security in Kenya,” he added.


“They had requested to be part of this tournament and we considered them. We had not bothered to invite them here so the tournament will still go on without them,” he said. Musonye also confirmed another guest team, Libya, will be checking in today.