Friday 9 November 2012

Malawi replace Djibouti in the Cecafa Challenge Cup

By Fred Maingi
Malawi have replaced Djibouti ahead of the Tusker CECAFA senior challenge cup draw slated  for  Kampala  in Uganda on Monday
CECAFA Secretary General Nicholas Musonye confirmed the absence of  Djibouti
"Djibouti will not be there so in their place we have drafted Malawi because of their previous relationship with  the tournament and their geographical proximity to the CECAFA region which makes it logistically easier to have them participate" explained Musonye
Already  11 Cecafa countries led by Uganda,Kenya,Tanzania,Zanzibar,Rwanda,Burundi,Ethiopia,Sudan,South Sudan,Somalia and Eritrea have confirmed participation in the tournament with other  countries also expressing interest to participate in the continents oldest tournament .
    Three countries  Malawi Cameroon and Zimbabwe had shown  interest in participating as guests in the tournament
East African Breweries have sank $450,000 towards the hosting of the tournament
The winning team will be awarded $30,000, while $20,000  will go to  the first runner-up and US$10,000 for the third placed teams
The hosts Uganda Cranes are the defending champions and will be looking to win a third successive title in a row
Kenya's Harambee Stars will also  be hopeful of ending their bid run in the regional tourney with new coach Henry Michel at the helm
Meanwhile the original Tusker Premier League(TPL) trophy will be placed  at the Nairobi  City Stadium where league leaders Gor Mahia will be facing Thika United on the
final day of the local league this season.
This was announced on Friday morning by Kenyan Premier League Chief
Executive (CEO) Jack Oguda after a pre-match meeting that was also
attended by Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Chairman Sam Nyamweya as
well as Gor Mahia and Thika United officials and the Kenya Police.
"Gor versus Thika is the main match on saturday because Gor are the clear
league leaders and so the original league trophy will be at the venue
of the match which is City Stadium. We have two replica trophies that
will be at Hope Centre and Awendo, the venues of Tusker and City Stars
and Chemelil and AFC Leopards respectively, since Tusker and Leopards
also stand a chance of winning the league," said Oguda.
   Oguda said that security arrangements for all the top three matches
were complete, noting that Gor's fixture would be given special  attention, given the magnitude of the fixture.
  The match between Sofapaka and Karuturi Sports will now be held at
Thika Municipal Stadium.
Only 90 minutes stand on the way of K'Ogalo as Gor is popularly known.
They will be hoping to end their league drought as they seek to lay
their hands on the coveted trophy, 17 years after they last did so.
"It has been a very long time. I was only nine years when Gor last won
the local league and it will be great for me to go down in history as
the captain of the team when we finally ended drought after a long
time," said the team's skipper Jerry Onyango.
He added: "We have come close twice, in 2010 and last year, but in
both occasions the fate was not in our hands as we relied on
mathematics and other teams to do us favours. This time it is ours to
lose because we are the top of the league and only need three points
to be the champions."
Thika has always been a hard nut to crack for the league leaders, but
Gor enjoy a better head-to-head record over their opponents as they
have never lost to them in their last six fixtures.

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