Emerging Stars are set to find out their opponents in the CECAFA Under 23 tourney slated for Bahir Dar, Ethiopia with the draw set to be conducted on Tuesday 13 July from 1 PM (EAT).Rwanda and Somalia will not participate in this edition of the tournament with the Federation of Rwanda Football Association (FERWAFA) citing that the government imposing lockdown on most activities including contact and team sports made it difficult to secure logistics.CECAFA U-23 Challenge Cup draw sethttps://t.co/0Iu9O0c2Ok pic.twitter.com/yZTdYTbaer— Cecafaonline (@Cecafaonline) July 13, 2021 With the two nations opting out of the tournament Uganda, Eritrea, Burundi, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and guest side DR Congo are expected to be drawn on Tuesday.CECAFA Executive Director, Auka Gecheo revealed that the draw will be conducted on Tuesday at 1 PM (EAT).“We will go ahead and have the draw on July 13th at 13000hrs local time,” Auka is quoted as saying on CECAFA’s official portal. The tournament is just four days away after the initial date of Saturday 3rd July was rescheduled due to some of the Member Associations having their countries go into Covid-19 lockdown.#EmergingStars back in camp pic.twitter.com/c5rqW5zLRm— Harambee Stars (@Harambee__Stars) July 6, 2021 The circumstances made it difficult for federations to secure travel to Ethiopia to honour the tournament with some members of the South Sudan national team in quarantine at the time after a Covid-19 outbreak while in Qatar for the FIFA Arab Cup.The kickoff date for the tournament is likely to change with CECAFA revealing that the date the tournament will climax depends on the number of teams finally drawn on Tuesday.According to FKF, Emerging Stars is set to leave for Ethiopia on July 14, 2021, to attend the regional tournament that now kicks off on July 17, 2021.
