Football Federation Needs Sh1 Billion for Kagame Cup

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Majuto Omary

25 May 2011

The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) faces a testing time as it races against time to raise money for hosting the Cecafa Club Championship next month.Briefing reporters yesterday, TFF president Leodegar Tenga said Sh1 billion is needed to host the tournament dubbed Kagame Cup smoothly.

This year’s edition was earlier planned for Sudan, but owing to ongoing fighting, the regional governing body moved to shift the championship to Dar es Salaam.”It’s a testing time for the TFF as we have to work day and night to get the money if we want to run the event in the best way,” said Tenga who doubles as the Cecafa president.

“Cecafa picked Dar es Salaam out of many cities that can host the event, so we cannot afford to lose this opportunity. “We will strive to solicit the fund from various soccer stakeholders in spite of a limited time and hopefully we’ll have one of the best tournaments ever,” he said.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame sponsors the tournament to the tune of $60,000 (approximately Sh90 million), but Tenga said the money is far below the real cost of organising the tournament.He said El Merreikh Group of Sudan agreed to dish out $40,000 (about Sh60 million) to sponsor this year’s edition of the annual tournament.

Tenga also revealed that the body has decided not to invite guest teams this time around as a desperate attempt to cut the costs.

“We earlier invited Al Ahly of Egypt and Liberty of Ghana to add some flair in the tournament, but we are facing a difficult time financially, so we’ve decided to cancel the plan.”Having them in the championship could have been great, but we have no option but to exclude them, therefore only the teams from member states will be battling it out,” he said.

Simba Sports Club, the former Vodacom Premier League champions who are also the country’s flag bearers in the African Champions League, will represent Tanzania Mainland.Zanzibar Ocean View from the Isles will also be making their debut in the championship.

Other 2010 regional league champions who will take part in the tournament include: Uganda’s Bunnamwaya, Kenya’s Ulinzi, Ethiopia’s St. George, El-Merreikh and Al Hilal from Sudan.The list also includes: Burundi’s Vital’O, Port of Djibouti, Red Sea of Eritrea, Somalia’s Elman and Rwanda’s Etincelles and, defending champions APR.

APR were crowned the new Cecafa Club Cup Champions last year after beating St. George from Ethiopia 2-0.

Meanwhile: Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye told this paper yesterday that they were considering rescheduling the kick-off date to the end of June.The outspoken official said the move was meant to give the TFF enough time for preparations.

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