Africa Youth Championships

U-20 team, April 20-22Namibia  vs. RwandaU-17 team, Oct. 12-14Malawi/Botswana vs. RwandaThe Rwanda Under-20 and Under-17 teams will face Southern African opposition in their respective 2013 qualifiers following draws made on Sunday in Cairo, Egypt.According to the fixtures of the qualifiers of the 18th African U-20 Championship released over the weekend by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the national U-20 will play against Namibia in the first leg tie between April 20 and 22, this year, with the return leg taking place two weeks later. Should the Junior wasps manoeuvre their way past Namibia, the task ahead looks even tougher as they face a potential second round clash with West African soccer giants, Mali in July. Incidentally, Rwanda senior team, Amavubi will play Mali in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers mid this year. Nonetheless, this is yet another opportunity for the junior wasps to try and go a step further having been eliminated in the first round of the 2010 qualifiers by Congo Brazzaville. The U-20 national team, under the technical guidance of French Richard Tardy started their preparation for the qualifying series of the 2013 AYC by hosting Uganda in a 1-all draw international friendly match last month.While U-20 team’s route to the Algeria finals looks bumpy, their younger brothers, U-17 national team, do not have it easy either as they have pitted against Southern Africans. The winner between Malawi and Botswana will host Rwanda in the second round of the qualifiers of the 2013 African U-17 Championship which will be held in Morocco in the weekend of October 12-14.U-17’s success against the winner between Malawi and Botswana would see them land a tricky third round tie against the winner between Sudan/Somalia and Algeria to be played in November.