Comments on: CECAFA Cup shows me how little I know about our global game

By: mugambe paul

mugambe paul — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:39:09 +0000

This is the time we uganda’s are to rift our country grobaly
by taking the cecafa challage cup
let us join our hands and we pray for uganda to beat rwanda this time.

By: RTS/Runningball

RTS/Runningball — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:09:07 +0000

Hello football lovers,

I work for a live broadcast company and we are looking for people to cover games in the CECAFA Cup taking place in Kenya ! That’s done via cell phones.
Any interest ? You can write to me to alex_runningball@yahoo.fr

Thank you.

By: the Ugandan...

the Ugandan... — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:22:04 +0000

It’s that time of the year again. The CECAFA tournament is on. This time COSAFA members Zambia and Zimbabwe agreed to compete. These teams along with Malawi used to be regulars in the 1980s before they broke away to join COSAFA.

Will Uganda win it again?

I remember the penalties between Uganda and Kenya ( I forgot the actual year). Kenya had Muhamood Abbas in goal! As good as Peter Cech at Chelsea right now. Uganda had Paul Ssali in goal another great goalie. I was a kid but almost got a Heart Attack! Uganda had strikers like Kamoga who had a bullet of a shot that at a previous cup had ripped a net!
Danger man Katerrega would have been a nightmare for any goalie worldwide. Against any other team it would have been a walk over. But Abbas was in goal there were no guarantees.

I have since seen other exciting & important tournaments but none with as much drama or skill. Not even the Euro Champs league final against ManU & Chelsea. Heck, that was kid’s stuff!

But then Thomas Nkono one of the best ever World Cup goalies, is not well known either.

By: Solomon Ssenkubuge

Solomon Ssenkubuge — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:12:32 +0000

I AM pleased to hear that Uganda won the CECAFA 2009, thanks for this page i didn’t really know that much about this tournament as well, although i would have really loved to see them go a bit further in the race for the world cup, i know they are capable and this year i think they really tried. Well too bad i have already broken my new year resolutions.

By: Jude Kagoro

Jude Kagoro — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:27:52 +0000

This is a very interesting football debate, i for one grew up following CECAFA with all the passion it deserves and am happy my own country Uganda has found it so easy to win this tornament several times. I dont even seem to remember the last time Uganda failed to reach the last four of this cup. Interesting enough Uganda has always fielded second string sides but they still win. A point in case is this years version in which Uganda has fielded only two first team players and can still beat they likes of Rwanda 4-0. The tornment has been a modeling arena for many teams including Zambia who are nolonger a member coutry their participation in the current version notwithstanding. Teams in the region have tramendously improved (e.g Rwanda beating Morrocco 3-1, Uganda beating Nigeria, Angola, Benin etc) in world cup qualifier, furthermore teams like Uganda and Kenya are even ranked higher than the likes of South Africa on FIFA rankings. To the soccer lovers in Europe, there is much more in Africa despite your media concetrating on war and starvation.

By: Karumba

Karumba — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:01:14 +0000

Bobby Bowl,
Thank you for the insightful. your knowledge in football especially Africa is unquestionable. Surely, there are some people who think Africa is just a country especially from the western world; i call it the ignorance of highest order.
To day, most managers in the premier league are in romance with African players because of their skills, pace and athleticism in football. this talent is nurtured from the local leagues.

By: Bobby Bowl

Bobby Bowl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:17:16 +0000

Not surprising at all. A lot of people would even go as far as asking if these countries even have national teams, and some would not even know the countries exist (A surprising number of people think Africa is a country).

The fact is, every country in the world has a national football team, and almost every country in the world has a national football league and cup competitions just like England. The quality in England is obviously better because of all the money involved and the attention it receives. But the big African players in the World Cup, the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Abedi Pele, Roger Milla, etc – all started their careers in the leagues of Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria et al before they joined the cash-filled European leagues. Without the domestic set-up back in the African countries, they would not have been discovered, and a lot of European leagues would be worse off because of it.

As far as African national teams are concerned, it is one of the better endowed continents with respect to competitions. Not only does it have the African Nations Cup for all countries (along with U-20 and U-17 championships), it also has a Women’s Championship, and also the All Africa Games (a sort of African Olympics) has a football competition (although the men’s competition is not for full national teams nowadays).
Below this, the African continent is split into sub-regions, most of which also have their own championship for national teams – The COSAFA Cup (for the Southern African countries), the CECAFA Championship – mentioned above – (for Eastern Africa), the CEMAC Cup (for Central Africa), the AmÃƒÂlcar Cabral Cup (for Far-West Africa) and the Indian Ocean Island Games (for, obviously, the Indian Ocean Islands – Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, RÃƒÂ©union and Mayotte – the last two of which are not even members of FIFA – but still manage to field national teams, and have a domestic setup too). And that is just Africa……. Asia has just as many tournaments for national teams.

In fact, Europe and South America are the 2 continents with the least number of competitions for national teams (only 2 each – including the World Cup qualification).

I hope you enjoy your enlightenment, and not just in footballing terms. Now I am off to find somebody else who is eager to see SÃƒÂ£o TomÃƒÂ© & PrÃƒÂncipe play their first international match in over 5 years so they can stop being the only one of FIFA’s 208 members who does not appear in the FIFA ranking…….

By: Karumba

Karumba — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:04:40 +0000

It is good that one of your new year’s resolution is to broaden your knowledge much more about football in other regions.
You are not alone in this circus of ignorance. most Europeans are like that. they only know what is taking place at their back yard (self sustaining and self centered), which is not good anyway.

The second reason is perhaps not your fault. CECAFA tournament just of recent (mostly sponsored by Mr. Kagame the president of Rwanda and now GTV cable channel) have never had enough sponsors and as a result the tournament could go on unnoticed. Now thanks to Kagame and the British GTV who are big sponsors now.
May be to help you understand more, Rwanda also qualified for the next stage of African nations qualifiers.

Otherwise for a guy like me leaving in Rwanda, i not only follow the major European football leagues (premier league being the most popular whether you are in the North or Southern hemisphere) , but also leagues like the coca cola Championships are well known to most of us because of our keen interest to “know all”.

Good resolutions for you.