体坛英语新闻：Kenya withdraws from hosting regional CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup

NAIROBI, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has pulled the rag on Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) by declining to host this year's regional Senior Challenge Cup.

Nicholas Musonye, CECAFA secretary-general confirmed on Tuesday that the oldest competition bringing teams from Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will not be staged this year.

A change of date by Confederations of Africa Football (CAF) to bring forward the annual Champions League and Confederations Cup to December and November also threw the spanners in the works denying CECAFA time to secure an alternative host.

"There was a spirited attempt by us to get an alternatives host, but the timing was also impossible. The CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup matches will this time start in November through to December from the preliminary round," said Musonye on Tuesday.

Kenya are the defending champions after beating Zanzibar in last year's competition. However, CECAFA now wants to align their calendar with that of FIFA in order to avoid a repeat clash.

"We are now aligning our regional competition calendar and we will adopt dates picked by FIFA. It will mean we reshuffle some of the competition including the Kagame Cup and Senior Challenge Cup, which will now be played in June," added Musonye.

"Tanzania and Rwanda have shown interest to host Kagame Cup while the Senior Challenge Cup will be played in early July, though we are yet to secure a host nation. That will be known after our general assembly next month in Uganda."

CECAFA has been grappling with issues of finance and have on several occasions been bailed out by Rwanda President Paul Kagame.

However, Musonye wants CAF to sponsor some of the competitions, which are critical in raising the standards of the sports in the region.

FIFA has since given out one million U.S. dollars to go towards football development in the East Africa region and Musonye said they are putting in place structures to utilize the funds and grow talent.

"It is important that every year we organize the tournaments. They are critical in the development of players. We start off with the Under-20 Championships in Uganda this December," said Musonye.