The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Suleiman Jongo
9 May 2011
Dar Es Salaam — The Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) has postponed draws for the Kagame Club Championship that were scheduled for yesterday.
The draws were put off to await the confirmation of Egypt’s Al-Ahly and Ghana’s Liberty Professionals.The tournament will kick off on June 21 in Khartoum and end on July 5.
Simba Sports Club, the former Mainland champions who are also the country’s flag bearers in the CAF Confederations Cup, are also expected to take part in the regional event.
The Msimbazi team will take part by virtue of their being the 2010 Mainland champions. They lost their title to archrivals, Dar es Salaam Young Africans, who will represent the country in next year’s CAF Champions League.
According to the Ugandan daily The Monitor, Cecafa is waiting for the two guest teams to validate their participation in next month’s regional event.
The two teams have been invited to spice up the annual event, which is held on a rotational basis between member countries.
“From the beginning, the two guest teams expressed their interest to take part in the regional tournament but until now they are yet to make confirmation,” remarked Nicholas Musonye, the Cecafa secretary-general. According to the sources, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the main sponsor, has staked $60,000 (an estimated Sh90 million) in prize money while co-sponsors El Muriate Group will top up the prize with $40,000 (Sh60 million).
Different 2010 regional league champions in the skirmish include Uganda’s Bunnamwaya, Tanzania’s Simba, Kenya’s Ulinzi, Ethiopia’s St. George, El-Merreikh and Al Hilal from Sudan, Zanzibar Ocean View from the Isles, Burundi’s Vital’O, Port of Djibouti, Red Sea of Eritrea, Somalia’s Elman and Rwanda’s Etincelles and APR, the defending champions.
APR were crowned the new Cecafa Club Cup Champions last year after beating St. George from Ethiopia 2-0.
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Continued here:
Tanzania: Cecafa Puts Off Kagame Cup Draws