The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has awarded Zanzibar the hosting rights for the 2024 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup.This was announced during the CECAFA General Assembly that is ongoing at the Pride Inn Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.Zanzibar to host the CECAFA senior challenge 2024.Zanzibar will also host stage the CAF Africa Schools qualifiers as Uganda hosts AFCON U17 qualifiers, Tanzania organizes AFCON U20 qualifiers with Ethiopia getting the CAF Women’s champions league qualifiers and U20 girls… pic.twitter.com/QFbnU66HRE— Eric Njiru (@EricNjiiru) February 23, 2024 Isayas Jira, the CECAFA Vice President who is also the Chairman of the Competitions Committee made the announcement. He said the decision was arrived during the CECAFA Executive meeting held on February 22nd, 2024.“We brought back the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup because of marketing issues,” added Isayas. We also appointed six members to make change some for our tournaments,” added Isayas.The CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup returns after it last took place 2019 in Uganda. President, of the Zanzibar Football Federation (ZFF) Suleiman Mahmoud Jabir said he was happy that the Senior Challenge Cup is returning. “For us Senior Challenge Cup is like a World Cup and having it back will perhaps help strength our teams to even qualify more for AFCON,” added Jabir.Zanzibar has also been awarded the rights to host the CAF Africa Schools Football Championship CECAFA Zonal qualifiers.Uganda were awarded the rights to host the AFCON U-17 Boys CECAFA Zonal qualifiers, while Tanzania host the AFCON U-20 CECAFA Zonal qualifiers.##NAJAVA_MECA_7899242##Ethiopia were awarded to host the CAF Women’s Champions League CECAFA qualifiers, and the CECAFA U-20 Girls Championship.Bukhungu Stadium to be ready in time for CHAN 2024The meeting, coming on the back of two competition committee meetings on 26 January and 22 February, was poised to attract all 12 zonal member associations, only for Sudan to skip.Also in attendance was CAF General Secretary and Vice President Veron Mosengo and Augustin Senghor Ahmed respectively, together with Leodegar Tenga, a Honorary Member.In addition to sorting out CECAFA’s calendar of events and their respective hosts, a breakdown of the zone’s financial status was given by the Chairperson of the Finance Committee Augustino Maduot.In the figures presented, CECAFA saw a 75% upturn in revenue through the 2022-23 season as compared to that of 2021-22, mainly sparked by its tournaments last year including; CECAFA U18 Women’s championship, CAF Women’s Champions League Zonal Qualifiers, CECAFA U-15 and U18 Boys and Girls championships and CAF African Schools – CECAFA Qualifiers.In addition, as per CECAFA’s projected revenue for 2024 – totalling USD 2,566,500 (Ksh. 373,425,750), it was announced that the zone would partner with three media companies namely; Events Africa (Kenya), Aquila International (Kenya) and Jackson Group (Tanzania) that would help CECAFA’s sustainability plan.CECAFA’s projected revenue vs income summary 2024. A deficit of $778,292 (Ksh113,241,486) pic.twitter.com/IL4zlhlA5A— Eric Njiru (@EricNjiiru) February 23, 2024 Under the same figures, all competition expenses (USD 2,720,000) and operational costs (USD 1,941,707) would leave CECAFA with a budget deficit of USD 778,292 (Ksh. 113,241,486) that according to CAF President Wallace Karia, would be accounted for by the aforementioned marketing partnership, plus potential title sponsors for the CECAFA Senior Challenge trophy mainly from member Head of States.All member states also resolved to align with CAF in regards to filing their yearly finances, and will now move away from the 1 Jan – 31 Dec window to the January to June window.An auditing report was also given indicating a “true and fair view” of CECAFA’s financial report in 2023, and a vote to retain the auditing firm was made unanimously.Given that outgoing CECAFA Vice President Isayas Jira was moving up to a CAF ExCo position, it was resolved that Gen. Augustino Parek Maduot was elected CECAFA Vice President, with Ali Abdi Mohamed of Somalia taking a spot in CECAFA’s Executive Committee.Meet South Sudan Football Federation President, Augustino Maduot and the new CECAFA Vice President.He takes over from Isayas Jira who was co-opted as a CAF Executive Committee Member.#cecafa @ssfa_com @CAF_Media@Cafonline1 pic.twitter.com/eF9OcBVeOy— Cecafaonline (@Cecafaonline) February 23, 2024
