CAF to evaluate Rwanda's 2016 Chan preps this month

A delegation from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to visit Rwanda this month to assess the progress in preparations for the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) slated for January 16-February 7 in Rwanda. According to the CHAN Local Organizing Committee spokesman, Emmanuel Bugingo, who is also the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Sports and Culture, the CAF delegation will be here to establish the roadmap of the preparations for the biennial event that will attract 16 teams from across the continent. The exact date of the delegation’s arrival is yet to be confirmed. “The CAF delegation is mainly interested in looking at our roadmap, stadiums and hotels. We are on track with preparations and we are waiting to launch the website soon,” revealed Bugingo in an interview with Times Sport. Rwanda won the bid to host 2016 CHAN in 2011 and has since embarked on efforts to renovate two stadiums, including Huye and Umuganda stadiums in the Southern and Western provinces, respectively. This was after plans to construct a state-of-the-art 40,000 seat stadium in Gahanga failed to materialise due to design hitches, according to Government. This multi-million project was estimated to cost $150m (approximately Rwf105bn). However, a visit by CAF officials solved the mystery after they advised that it was okay if Government renovated the available stadiums. In an earlier interview, the Rwanda Housing Authority director general Esther Mutamba revealed that renovation on the two Kigali-based stadiums including Amahoro and the Kigali regional stadium would commence very soon. Ferwafa secretary general Olivier Mulindahabi told a media briefing in February that the CHAN website will be launched on March 15 but this is yet to see the light of day. According to sources at Ferwafa, the website developer that won the bid to set it up asked for a ridiculous amount of money totaling to Rwf13m, way out of the organiser’s budget. The local organizing committee has since agreed that the process should be conducted afresh for a cheaper option to be sought in line with the available budget. The draws for the competition will be made on April 5 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Forty-two teams will be involved in the draw based on zonal distributions of the national associations affiliated to CAF. editorial@newtimes.co.rw