The CECAFA U-23 tournament that was expected to kick off on Saturday, July 3, in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, has been postponed for two weeks to July 17. A meeting that brought together seven Secretaries-General from respective CECAFA Member Associations convened on Monday, June 28, via zoom and decided to postpone the competition by two weeks as they wait for the pandemic to ease up. “The change was necessitated by some of the Member Associations having their countries go into lockdown due to COVID- 19 and are struggling to get government approval to travel to the event,” a communique issued by CECAFA on Monday, June 28, reads in part. According to the communique, the meeting also changed the dates for the tournament because the South Sudan technical bench and some of their players are currently being quarantined in Doha, Qatar after attending the Arab FIFA Cup and will only travel on July 7. The new dates also go in favor of Tanzania, whose players are waiting for the league to conclude on July 18, to be able to travel with the national U-23 national team in Ethiopia for the tournament. Ethiopia will remain the host nation of the annual tournament. Meanwhile, Rwanda’s U-23 national team will remain in their residential camp until Ferwafa makes the final decision on a possibility of keeping the team together and prepare for the tournament.
