Eritrea to host inaugural Cecafa under-15 tournament

Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye addresses journalists at a past function. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • The tournament will kick off in Asmara on August 17 and run until September 1.
  • Musonye met Eritrea's Director of Sports and Culture Amb Zemede Tecle.

The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) has launched the first ever regional under-15 football tournament.

At a ceremony in Asmara, Eritrea, Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye said the inaugural tournament will be attended by all the Cecafa member associations who endorsed it at their meeting in Dar es Salaam last month.

The tournament will kick off in Asmara on August 17 and run until September 1.

Eritrea last hosted a Cecafa tournament in 2010 on the occasion of the Under-20 Challenge Cup. The new tournament, to be sponsored by the "Fifa Forward Programme" initiative, will be the first under-15 tournament to be staged in Africa.

According to Musonye, the tournament is to help the region prepare for the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that start early next year. The initiative to launch the tournament has been backed by Confederation of African Football president Ahmad Ahmad who attended the Cecafa meeting in Dar last month.

At Thursday's ceremony in Asmara, Musonye met Eritrea's Director of Sports and Culture Amb Zemede Tecle and the president of the Eritrean National Football Federation Esayas Abraham.

Commissioner Tecle confirmed that Eritrea was ready to host Cecafa and acknowledged the importance of the tournament to the people of Eritrea and the region as a whole.