NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

CECAFA Challenge Cup Fixtures Announced

By Shafi'i Mohyaddin Abokar

With CECAFA challenge cup due to kick off in Tanzana later this month the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) conducted the CECAFA-Tusker Challenge cup draw in Dar this morning.

Twelve teams will take part in the championship whose title sponsor is Serengeti Breweries through Tusker Brand. At a packed Press Conference in Dar, CECAFA General Secretary Nicholas Musonye of Kenya confirmed the participation of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Sudan. The invited teams are Ivory Coast, Malawi and Zambia.

SBL through their Managing director Richard Wells reconfirmed their commitment of US 450,000 and opened the door for other sponsors to come on board and support SBL to ensure that CECAFA competition was a huge success.

Musonye announced that the tournament will be shown Live through supersport which indeed has created more excitement across the continent. At the Press Conference, Musonye who was accompanied by TFF and Cecafa Chairman Leodegar Tenga revealed of the huge interest shown by many countries in Africa who were interested in participating in the event. One of them Cameroon has been assured of invitation in the Challenge cup next year.

SBL have already signed a three year Contract with CECAFA which will run through 2012.

The Participating countries are divided into three groups and they are as follows.

Group A
Somalia
Tnzani
Zambia
Burundi

Group B
Rwanda
Ivory Coast
Sudan
Zanziba

Group C
Uganda
Kenya
Malawi
Ethiopia

Two nations in the region Eritrea and Djibouti are missing from the regional body competition.

Shafi'i Mohyaddin Abokar is the NewsBlaze Somalia reporter. Contact him through NewsBlaze.