THE Confederation of East and Central African football Associations (Cecafa) has postponed this year’s regional U-17 Youth Championships due to financial constraints. The East and Central Africa under-17 soccer championship which was earlier scheduled for early this month in Nairobi, Kenya, will now be held in April next year with dates yet to be set. The Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye told Times Sport yesterday from Nairobi by telephone that tight schedules involving member states, and the lack of ready sponsorship led to the postponement of the championship. “Some members like Rwanda and Kenya wanted the championship postponed because they’ll be involved in local and continental commitments,” said Musonye. The Nairobi based official also admitted that besides some member countries requesting for the postponement, they (Cecafa) didn’t have ready sponsorship to facilitate the smooth running of the youth championships. Cecafa failed to raise $200.000 which was the initial estimated budget for the two-week long tournament. Instead, the tournament’s organizers have so far managed to raise about $25.000. Although the event has been pushed to next year, Musonye has asked teams to make sure that they send legible players for the tournament. Countries which had confirmed their participation include; Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia and hosts Kenya. During last year’s event staged in Bujumbura, Burundi, there were reports of teams fielding over-age players. The President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete has donated the winner’s trophy for the tournament. Rwanda’s youth team which failed to qualify for the finals of the African Youth Championships due next year in Algeria had not yet started preparing for the regional event. Coach Michael Weiss will start a fresh in identifying new talent for next year’s tournament as well as preparing for the 2011 African and World U-17 campaigns. In a space of eight months, the German born coach searched for new talent and guided Rwanda to the final round of the African Youth Championships qualifiers before losing 3-2 on goals aggregate to Burkina Faso. Ends
