Kagame Cup draws set for today in Khartoum

THE Council of East and Central Africa football Association (Cecafa) is set to hold the draw for this year’s Kagame Cup Club Championship on Tuesday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.After holding a final inspection in Darfur and Gordofan on Sunday and Monday, the regional tournament has been cleared to be hosted in the two states from June 18 to July 2.Speaking to Times Sport yesterday, Musonye said, “We are going to have the draws on Tuesday, we expect a total of thirteen clubs that have confirmed their participation.”“This year, there will be no guest team because we are even overwhelmed by the number of entrants (13 teams) and if we are to include a guest team, it would make it 14 (teams) and this would complicate our calculations,” he explained.Musonye noted that if they get enough sponsorship in the future, they would even increase the number of participating teams in the oldest regional tournament in Africa to 16.Musonye further highlighted the reason why the tournament was brought in this part of the region. “We have brought this competition to Darfur and South Gordofan for one reason. This is a tournament that brings peace to the people of East and Central Africa and we want to spread the Peace campaign across the whole region.”Prize money increasedMusonye also revealed that Cecafa has increased the prize money. “We have the prize money from our patron President Paul Kagame, which is $60,000 and another new sponsor from Tanzania, Mr. Mwangi who is adding $20,000 to make it $80,000.”“However, the modality of distributing this prize money among the top three winners will be decided by the executive committee before the start of the competition. We want to make it up to $100,000 so that it becomes the biggest prize competition in the region, and by any means it should. This is good motivation,” added Musonye.Competing teams:The tournament has attracted league winners from 10 member countries and three clubs from Sudan. Tanzania’s Young Africans are the defending champions after they beat local rivals Azam FC in the final hosted in Dar es Salaam last year.The teams include Simba (Tanzania Mainland), Al Ahly Shandy, Al Hilal Kadugli and El Merriekh Al Fashir all from Sudan, Tusker (Kenya), Express (Uganda), APR (Rwanda), Vital’O (Burundi), Ports (Djibouti), Elman (Somalia) and Super Falcons [Zanzibar], and El Nasr [South Sudan].

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Kagame Cup draws set for today in Khartoum