Cecafa ought to consider competitiveness

If you have been wondering why Cecafa championships, club or country have struggled to attract bigger attention from the outside world, then forgive me, but I’m going to take it personal and I believe I’m entitled to. The people, who run Cecafa, have relentlessly considered all other factor but keep forgetting what I believe is the key factor in making the championship more attractive—that’s competitiveness. A more competitive Cecafa club championship or senior challenge cup would be a magnet for several scouts working for European clubs or other top African clubs mostly from the North and South Africa. I’m not going to duel so much on the past but rather on the present—as you may or may not be aware, depending on which planet you live, the ongoing Cecaca/Kagame club championship in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania attracted ten teams out of which eight qualify for the quarter-finals! It’s going to be very hard for the people in charge of Cecafa secretariat or whoever else is concerned to convince me that a ten-team tournament can’t do without the quarter-finals—how about, after the group stages, four teams qualifying straight to the semi-finals? Unless, if there are other (non-football factors, I sense) that call for eight out of ten teams playing the quarter-finals, the idea simply doesn’t fit into the bill of making the tournament competitive thus attracting bigger audiences from within and outside the region. Can someone tell me of a top or an average European club wasting it resources sending their scouts to a tournament that has a team with one point playing in the quarter-final? Don’t get me wrong here, because some of you (especially if you’re an APR fan) are already starting to draw your own conclusions but the bottom line is, any team, no matter from where or it’s history or pedigree, does not deserve to play in the knock-out round of any football competition with just a point to show off. If only there was no quarter-finals and instead four teams out of ten were fighting to reach the semi-finals, I’m very sure we could have seen a lot more competitiveness from the teams. Knowing that a point or two or even three might not be enough for any team to qualify for the semi-finals, trust me, we could have seen a different reaction from APR in the match against Meimbeni, which they lost 2-1 having drawn the first against Yanga Africans. I hope next time, our good friends at Cecafa (whose desire to see football in our region take a step or two towards catching up with other regions) is unquestionable, take the factor of competitiveness in account when planning for any future Cecafa championship. just suggesting. Football can be such a cruel sport We all know or we all refer to football as ‘the beautiful game’ very much so when results are going your way, but when the reverse is true, the so called beautiful game can be such a cruel sport—APR and Arsenals fans are a few witnesses to this rather harsh reality. You might wonder why I have picked on the two teams as references to this particular topic and at this particular time. The two teams, regardless of their differences and the fact that one is found in the skylights and riches of London and the other can be traced in the clean but impoverished little Kigali, have a lot in common. Before every competition, so much is expected from them and many others in the same rating as they and when they don’t live to the expectations, questions marks start cropping up from critics and fans alike. This brings me to the issue of APR and their quest to defend the regional club championship title in Dar es Salaam, where their passage to the quarter-finals (by the time of filing this piece) depended (body and soul) on what happens in their rivals final group matches. The defending champions went into the tournament as favourites (as far as their fans were concerned) but after managing just a point from their two group matches, it left a bitter taste in their fans’ mouths and very much so to all Rwandans back at home. After putting local rivals Atraco on the sword just over a fortnight ago in the final of MTN-Peace Cup with a brand of football never seen in Rwanda before, critics staked Kagame Cup as the bait to test APR’s new-found strength. As for Arsenal, I’m one of their fiercest critics and once again proud to be among a few doubting Thomases, who stood our ground that the London outfit would not win anything last season from start to finish despite their surprise good start to the campaign. They started the season in scintillating style, just like the season before and once again came away with absolutely nothing to show for it. The difference between the 2007/08 season and the previous is that last season they thought that they deserved something. And so they still think! Keep on hoping guys. For my Arsenal friends of which I have quite a number, after the end of the final quarter of last season, it was hard to strike a balance between disappointment and pride but to me that summed up exactly how ‘the beautiful game’ can sometimes be so cruel when least expected. Can Ronaldinho keep R10 at Milan? Ronaldinho finally completed his protracted move from Barcelona to AC Milan this week, but can he get his desired number 10 shirt to fit his famous R10 initials? How will Carlo Ancelotti accommodate the former world players into the starting XI that already boosts of such stars as Kaka, Seedorf, Pato, Pirlo, Gattuso, Flamini, Ambrosini? The forever outspoken Seedorf has publicly opposed Ron’s transfer, and has warned him that he will neither give up his No.10 shirt. One way or another, something certainly has to give way because there is no chance Kaka will be left out of the team which leaves Seedorf and Ronaldinho to fight it out. There are already media reports that Seedorf is still refusing to hand over his No.10 shirt to Ronaldinho! Watch this space. Contact: nku78@yahoo.com