Tusker to name tour party

• Brewers pooled with Tanzania’s Azam and Zanzibar’s Mafunzo in this year’s tourney

Kenya’s representatives to the Cecafa Club Championship in Dar es Salaam, Tusker, will release the list of their 20-player tour party on Thursday ahead of the tournament’s kick-off on Saturday.

Team manager Neville Pudo said on Wednesday training had intensified as the brewers, who won the championship in 2008, set the very highest of targets. “It really is quite simply. We want to win the title,” Pudo said.

Tusker are scheduled to travel over the weekend for the two-week club fete that begins on Saturday with a double header in the National Stadium, Rwanda Patriotic Army v Wau Salaam of Zanzibar and home side Yanga versus Atletico of Burundi.

Home favourites

The Kenyan champions are in Group B and join the fray on Thursday with a date against Mafunzo of Zanzibar before winding up their preliminary round matches against Azam of Tanzania on July 21.

Pay satellite television channel SuperSport will broadcast the bulk of the matches live.

Organisers have meanwhile made one change to the originally fixture released a week ago. The clash between home favourites Simba and Uganda Revenue Authority has been moved from Monday to Sunday.

Big match

“We managed to secure the National Stadium which had previously been unavailable for the day. This is a big match which will appropriately be held on a weekend,” Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye said at a press conference in Nairobi.

Prize money is $60,000 (Sh5.04 million) courtesy of tournament patron Rwanda's President Paul Kagame. Winners will pocket $30,000 (Sh2.52 million), runners up $20,000 (Sh1.68 million) and third placed finishers $10,000 (Sh840,000).

Teams are expected to start arriving on Friday. Musonye said Paul Jones of Barclays Premier League side Sunderland AFC will make a presentation to the participating teams on professionalism and management of football clubs.

Group A – Simba (Tanzania), URA (Uganda), Vita Club (DR Congo), Ports (Djibouti)

Group B – Azam (Tanzania), Mafunzo (Zanzibar), Tusker (Kenya)

Group C – Yanga (Tanzania), APR (Rwanda), Wau Salaam (South Sudan), Atletico (Burundi).

Fixtures: All matches at National Stadium unless stated:

July 14 – APR v Wau Salaam (2pm), Yanga v Atletico (4 pm)

July 15 – Simba v URA (4pm), Vita Club v Ports Azam (2pm, Chamanzi), Azam v Mafunzo (4pm, Chamanzi)

July 17 – Atletico v APR (2pm), Wau Slaam v Yanga (4 pm)