Confusion as Cecafa U20 championship is off again
Gavin Mugweri, the U20 captain attempts the Onyango challenge during the team’s training at Jinja SS. The team has been in camp since last week at the time the tournament was called off. COURTESY OF FUFA
KAMPALA- Four days in the camp and less than a week to the kick-off of the U20 Cecafa championship, the sad reality is that the tournament has been called off, Daily Monitor understands.
The tournament which was expected to be held between January 14-27 in Buikwe and Gulu, has been called off partly because of financial shortages.
The Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) has now for the fourth time called off the tournament which is funded by the international football governing body, Fifa. However, the host nation is mandated to look for additional funds to have a successful tournament.
31 budding youngsters have been putting the final touches on their preparations ahead of the tournament that was expected to have Kenya, hosts Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan.
“We have not got any confirmation yet from Cecafa because we were expecting to have draws this week. But for us even if the tournament is called off, we shall use the camp for bonding purposes and prepare the U17 team for Afcon,” Ahmed Hussein, the Fufa spokesman said in a phone interview.
Since 18 of the 31-man squad had been drawn from the U17 team, they will have time to train together ahead of the Africa cup of Nations U17 tournament to be conducted in Tanzania from Paril 14 to 28th.
Uganda is pooled in Group A alongside Nigeria, Angola and Tanzania.
Teams that make it from the groips will qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Peru.
No coach, no problem
A substantive coach was expected to be named ahead of the tournament kick off but this too has been postponed.
Last week, head coach Peter Onen was sidelined in the new set-up igniting anticipation for a foreign coach. Jackson Magera and Hamza Lutalo, who were named assistants, are in charge of the team’s training at Njeru with Mubarak Kiberu in charge of the goalkeepers.
Uganda are three-time winners of the tournament (1973, 2006 and 2010) which has been held 11 times since 1971.
