CECAFA secretary general, Nicholas Musonye

The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) relishes the successful club championship that ended over the weekend in Dar es Salaam.

The body’s secretary general, Nicholas Musonye, said the standard of the competing teams is heading towards bright football future.

He said all competing teams have displayed   seriousness and commitment during the tournament.

Besides the standard, Musonye hailed the competing teams for fielding players from within the region; the development which he says will help to improve football standard.

The CECAFA official added that the Kagame Cup as the tournament has been branded as helped to improve the profile of some teams which were little known in the continent and the world at large.

“We are very happy with the competing teams’ performance. All the teams put up a splendid performance and what is also more interesting is that the teams were made up of many young players from our region,” he said.

Overlooking the last day’s media brawl,
Musonye expressed his appreciation with regard to violence-free atmosphere during the tournament duration.

No hooliganism acts have been reported during the tournament and he asked all soccer loving people in the region to utilise the game as a source of entertainment and a platform upon which people can coexist despite the nationality and social-political disparities.

Young Africans retained the title to cruise into their fifth Kagame Cup win after breezing past Azam FC in all-Tanzanians final at the national Stadium in Dar e s Salaam last Saturday.

However, Musonye’s satisfaction still leaves fans far from appreciation of the regional football when matched with the rest of the continent in terms of standard.

With the exception of Sudan, no other country in the CECAFA’s eleven member states competed in the African Nations Cup that ended in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea last February.

Currently, it’s only Uganda which has excelled in the run towards African Nations Cup championship to be staged in South Africa next year.

Again, it’s only Uganda football league which is on 88th of the top hundred of the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) released early last month.

The IFHS ranked Mainland premiership at 107 while Kenya Football League stood at 122 around the world. Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan Leagues are not ranked by the IFFHS.

According to IFFHS, rankings are not based on the financial power of the league, but on the performance of the country teams in the international competitions and friendlies.