CECAFA boss admits calendar mess affecting growth, unclear about sponsorships

Auka Gecheo addressing media at a previous CECAFA tournament | Courtesy

FOOTBALL CECAFA boss admits calendar mess affecting growth, unclear about sponsorships

Fred Mwambu • 17:50 - 17.08.2023

CECAFA last hosted the senior cup in 2019 before it was temporarily turned into an Under-23 Challenge Cup in 2021.

CECAFA’s Executive Director, Auka Gecheo, has admitted that the inconsistency in organising senior club and nations tournaments is affecting football growth in the region.

The regional body has come under intense scrutiny in recent times over the manner in which they have been conducting business.

Among the issues raised is CECAFA’s failure to operate its flagship tournaments – the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup and the Kagame Interclub Cup- consistently.

CECAFA last hosted the senior cup in 2019 before it was temporarily turned into an Under-23 Challenge Cup in 2021.

The club championship has been hosted only four times in the last eight years, with Tanzania bearing the burden thrice and Rwanda once!

Unaligned calendars

According to Gecheo, the inconsistencies result from the member associations' unaligned calendars.

“One of the biggest challenges we have had with the senior competitions is just the calendar,” Gecheo said during an interview with FUFA TV in Kampala on Thursday.

He advises that to solve that, the members’ system needs to be harmonized to realise the change needed.

“It’s tight [because] the leagues are not aligned; some have 12, 15, 16 and 18 teams, and the timelines are very different. It has to be a deliberate effort to harmonize the calendar across the member association,” he added.

Lack of sponsorships?

Many pundits will disagree with the reason bearing in mind that the body has consistently hosted development tournaments that CAF and FIFA fund.

They will argue that the federations shun the senior tournament because of the heavy financial burden associated with hosting.

The executive director did not give a clear direction regarding the body’s progress in sourcing sponsorships to ease the burden but promised that “It’s still [a] work in progress”.

Gecheo had promised to fastrack the sponsorships and monetisation of CECAFA products when he took over from Nicholas Musonye in March 2020.

Gecheo is in Uganda for the ongoing CAF Women's Champions League.

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