The Council for East and Central African Football Associations (Cecafa) has postponed the Senior Challenge Cup draws slated for December 8-22 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to next week.

Cecafa Secretary General, Nicholas Musonye told Times Sport by telephone that the draws which were due to be held last Tuesday had been pushed to Monday, November 12 but the venue remains unchanged.

"We pushed the draws to next week on Monday because (this week) we were dealing with finding new sponsors.

There has been a lot to this week,” Musonye admitted.
Cecafa struck a four-sponsorship deal for the event with GTV worth $6 millions. The British Gateway pay-per-view television replaces Ethiopian tycoon Sheik Al Amoudi as bankrollers of the annual championship.

Musonye called on participating countries to start preparing their respective teams so as to make the event more competitive.

Meanwhile, the regional body has also confirmed that all the 11 Cecafa member-states: Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Burundi, Zanzibar, Somalia and hosts Tanzania Mainland have confirmed their participation. 

Last year’s winner Zambia, a guest side that nipped Sudan 1-0 as well as Malawi will not take part in this year’s edition while the seeded teams will be Sudan, Burundi and Uganda.

Rwanda finished third last year under Michael Nees in Ethiopia but they would be hoping to go a step or two better under new coach Josip Kuze.

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