Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Issa Hayatou jets into the country this Saturday for 16th African Youth Championship which gets underway this Sunday at Amahoro stadium. The CAN U-20 Local Organising Committee (Loc) said yesterday that Hayatou has been confirmed to grace the African youth championship. “We are expecting Hayatou in the country on Saturday, a day before the continental championship kicks off,” Kalisa said. When asked whether Fifa boss Sepp Blatter will honour the championship, Kalisa said that they have no confirmation whether Blatter will be present to open the two-week long ceremony. The African Youth Championship is scheduled to take place from January, 18 to February, 1 2009. The matches will be held in Kigali’s newly renovated Amahoro National Stadium and the capital suburb’s Regional Stadium, Nyamirambo. French-based Sport Five which owns the broadcasting rights for the two-week long tournament is set to show the games live. Hosts Rwanda Mali, Cameroon and Ghana are drawn in Group A while South Africa’s Amajita is drawn in group B against favorites, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Fifa Under-20 World Cup hosts Egypt. Rwanda opens the competition against Mali at Amahoro Stadium this Sunday before another cracker sees Ghana taking on arch rivals Cameroon. The Caf African Youth Championship is a major international football competition for Caf nations, played by under-20 years-old. The Caf U-20 African Championship is held every two years with the top 4 teams qualifying for the Fifa World Youth Championship. Until 1989 the African representatives were determined purely on a qualifying basis with no African title on the line. Ends
