THE Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) yesterday announced the pushback for the second time, of the kick off date of the eagerly awaited 2017 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup to be hosted in Kenya.
Initially, the tournament which failed to take place two times was scheduled to kickoff tomorrow, before it was moved to November 25th this year, with a third kick off date now set on December 3rd this year, according to report from Kenya.
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has confirmed changes of the kick off date of the oldest tournament in the continent. Due to latest changes, the tournament will now run until December 17th this year, and the changes have been warmly welcomed by TFF as it allows the Mainland Premier League (VPL) to continue for a few more rounds.
“We have been notified on the changes of the Senior Challenge Cup tournament kick off and we laud the decision as it allows the Mainland league to continue for a few more rounds before paving way to the tournament,” said TFF Media and Communications Officer, Alfred Lucas.
TFF has yet to pick players, who will form the team, Kilimanjaro Stars, which will travel to Nairobi to take part in the event. The tournament will involve 12 teams, however, there are reports that only ten countries have committed so far.
According to CECAFA, countries which have so far confirmed their participation are Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar, defending champions Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Zimbabwe and host Kenya.
Somalia is said to yet to confirm though Eritrea and Djibouti have withdrawn from the competition. Kenya Football Federation (KFF) has named venues for the tournament as Kakamega, Kisumu and Nakuru.
Kasarani and Machakos have been put on standby just in case the rest of the venues are not ready by kick off time. The kick off change mean CECAFA General Assembly will now take place on December 2nd 2017 in Nairobi.
Senior Challenge Cup brings together all the national teams of the 12 member countries, but organisers have invited Libya and Zimbabwe as guest countries and both of them have already confirmed their participation.
Uganda are the defending champions having won the annual regional tournament, a record 14th time in Addis Ababa, in 2015 after beating Rwanda 1-0 in the final.
Meanwhile, CECAFA has also announced that annual Kagame Club Championship that failed to take place last year, will be held in April next year in Djibouti, whereas Rwanda will host the CECAFA Women’s Challenge Cup next year and Burundi will stage the CECAFA U-17 tournament.
Last year’s edition of the CECAFA Women’s Challenge Cup was held in Uganda and Tanzania Mainland Kilimanjaro Queens were crowned the Champions.
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