NAIROBI, Kenya, September 16-Zambia has been invited for this year’s Confederation of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Senior Challenge Cup to be held in Kenya starting November 28.
Unveiling the tournament’s mascot in Nairobi on Wednesday, CECAFA secretary general Nicholas Musonye said two other southern African nations Zimbabwe and Malawi had also requested to participate but space was limited.
Zambia has been the guest team of this tournament since 2007 in Addis Ababa when they emerged winners.
They failed to successfully defend the title in Kampala early this year when Uganda won.
Apart from Zambia, the rest of the CECAFA membership, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Zanzibar will be participating.
Musonye said two groups will be based in Nairobi while the third will be at the Mumias Complex, on the Kenya-Uganda border.
This will be the first time in 17 years that the two week tourney will be taking place in Kenya and will see a total of 26 matches played.
Musonye said the Kenya government has confirmed its support for the tournament.
“We expect a noise free tournament,” Musonye said at the launch.
“CECAFA has received a lot of support outside Kenya and it will be wrong for us to fail it said,” said the government’s representative at the function Stephen Karinga, a deputy commissioner in the Ministry of Sports.
