Kenya faces Uganda in Cecafa U-17 opening ties

NAIROBI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan open its Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) Under-17 tournament title campaign with a match against Uganda, the regional soccer body said Tuesday.

Unveiling the fixtures at Cecafa headquarters in Nairobi, the regional body's secretary-general Nicholas Musonye, said Kenya will clash with Uganda on August 19 in Juba, Sudan.

Sudan will host the two-week event, also named Cecafa U-17 Bashir tournament in three cities- Khartoum, Jub and Medani. The event is slated for August 19-31.

Kenya will face Zanzibar in their subsequent match on August 21in Juba, before meeting Ethiopia two days later.

The event feature Cecafa members- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Somalia and Eritrea. The only missing member will be Djibouti, while Burundi is the defending champions

It will also feature guest side Egypt and Nigeria- who will use the event to shape up for this year's FIFA Under-17 World Cup, slated for November in Nigeria.

Musonye said all the preparations are complete and thanked Sudanese President Omar El Bashir for sponsoring the tournament.

Given the fact that all the players are students, Musonye said Cecafa is looking into the option of rewarding the winning teams with cash to be used in paying the players school fees.

And he sounded a warning for age cheats, saying the council had put in place a mechanism for determining the players' age.

"We are not going to entertain age cheating. We have devised a mechanism to detect age cheating and whoever will be caught shall be chased away and face unspecified disciplinary measures," he warned.

While thanking the Sudan Government led by President Omar Al Bashir for sponsoring the tournament, Musonye said his secretariat was looking for a possibility of rewarding the winning teams with a token of appreciation.

President Bashir has sponsored the tournament to the tune of 700,000 U.S. dollars. Cecafa will use the event to preach peace and harmony in Sudan and Africa in general.