Despite emerging as champion of the maiden U-20 West African Football Union (WAFU) championship, Ghana’s U-20 coach Sellas Tetteh believes that Nigeria’s Flying Eagles remain one of the favourites for the African Youth Championship (AYC) due in Kigali from January, 18 to February, 1 2009.

Speaking to the Daily Independent, Tetteh said that despite failing to progress beyond the quarter-final stage of tournament on home soil, the Flying Eagles remains a side to watch when the African championship commences.

Apart from ranking Nigeria as one of the favourites, Tetteh, who was Ghana’s assistant coach to the 2006 edition of the Fifa World Cup in Germany, also tipped his native country, Ghana and Ivory Coast  as nations from the West African region that are capable of winning the U-20 African championship.

"That Nigeria could not make it to the last four of the WAFU Cup did not determine its performance at AYC. I think Nigeria is indeed a team to watch out for in Rwanda. I predict that it is going to be a different scenario entirely in Rwanda, especially for teams from West Africa. I see Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire doing well at the championship,” he said.

Ghana won the WAFU U-20 Cup by beating Senegal after the game ended 1-1 after extra time. According to the head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) inspection team to Rwanda Slim Aloulou, Rwanda is on right course as far as hosting the 2009 African Youth Championship is concerned.

Remera, Mumena and Kicukiro will be used as training grounds while Amahoro and Regional stadium will host the games.

Aloulou who was taken on a guided visit of the hotels that will be hosting the visiting teams and delegations gave a thumbs-up on the accommodation facilities.

The hotels include; Serena, Novotel, Milles Collines, Gorilla, Stipp and Top Tower hotels respectively. King Faycal hospital was approved as the tournament’s medical centre.

The African Youth Championship is scheduled to take place from January, 18 to February, 1 2009. The matches will be held in Kigali’s newly renovated Amahoro National Stadium and the capital suburb’s Regional Stadium, Nyamirambo.

According to the draw Rwanda, Mali, Cameroon and Ghana were placed in Group A while Nigeria, Egypt South Africa and Ivory Coast will be squaring it out in Group B.

Hosts Rwanda, which was seeded for the draw, will open the competition against Mali at Amahoro stadium on January 18, 2009 before another cracker sees Ghana taking on arch rivals Cameroon.

The Caf U-20 African Championship is held every two years with the top 4 teams qualifying for the Fifa World Youth Championship.

Until 1989 the African representatives were determined purely on a qualifying basis with no African title on the line. Since 1991 there has been a qualifying stage followed by a final tournament played by 8 teams in a chosen country.

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