The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) has confirmed that Rwanda could host the 2010 GTV sponsored Senior Challenge Cup tournament.

Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye told Times Sport yesterday by telephone from Kenya’s capital Nairobi that Rwanda stand high chances of being picked to host the 2010 edition if their national association made a bid.

Rwanda has staged the regional championships including the Senior Challenge Cup once and the Club Championship twice in the last four years.  Musonye was reacting to question out to him by this reporter on why Rwanda was not granted the rights to host next year’s Challenge Cup.

"Kenya bid to host next year’s edition during last year’s Cecafa congress and Rwanda, which was also present (at the congress) never did (bid).

"This is the chance for Kenya to organize a great tournament because they have everything, be it sponsorship or stability in their national association,” Musonye explained.

He noted, "With Uganda hosting this year’s edition, Kenya in 2009, Rwanda stands higher chances (than other countries) to host the 2010 edition”. 

The annual Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup is sponsored by a pay television channel, GTV, to the tune of $6 million over four years.  Kenya last hosted the tournament more than 10 years ago and with leadership wrangles having rocked the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) since 2004, the country has missed out on several of Cecafa events. 

Kenya missed out on two editions of the Senior Challenge Cup due to leadership wrangles and once as they were under Fifa suspension.  Zanzibar was appointed as standby hosts in case Kenya fails to host the 2009 edition of the Cecafa challenge Cup and Eritrea was also named to be on standby to host the Kagame Cup in case Tanzania fails. 

Eritrea will also host this year’s U-20 tournament with Tanzania as standby hosts while Zanzibar will look at the possibility of hosting the women’s tournament late this year.
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