The Council of East and Central Africa Football Association, CECAFA, is likely to reschedule the semifinal matches set for Thursday should Dar es Salaam archrivals Simba and Young Africans make a progression into the last four?

Earlier, the semifinals were supposed to be played on Thursday but the organizers are cashing in on gate collection advantage to separate the semifinal matches to Wednesday and Thursday.

The Kagame Cup quarterfinals kicks off today with holders Yanga hosting Zanzibar champs Mafunzo as URA clash against APR at the same venue.

The other two quarterfinals will be staged tomorrow as Simba meet Azam and Atletico play AS Vita.

CECAFA general secretary Nicholas Musonye said ‘security concern’ has been given a top priority for the rescheduling of the semifinals matches should Yanga and Simba teams win their semis berth.

“CECAFA understands the rivalry between the two

Mainland clubs when it comes to fans. So for security issues the matches will be played in separate days.

It is very difficult to play these two matches on the same day. Each team’s fans would like to be considered for evening match rather than afternoon. What if the afternoon match ends in a defeat for one of them? There might be riots at the stands,” said Musonye camouflaging the gate collection strategy.

The CECAFA official underscored the security measures and crowd control as top priorities rather than gate collection revenue. His body struggled to raise a billion shillings to cater for smooth running of the tourney.

Meanwhile, Musonye said teams will go for the penalty shootout in the event they end the quarterfinals on level terms, while extra time and then shootouts will be applied at the semifinal and final stages of the championship.

CECAFA has urged fans to turn out in huge numbers to cheer their teams as the tourney enters a knockout phase.

The competition director, Kawemba Saad, congratulated fans for behaving well up to this stage of the tourney.

“There are no criminal reports as fans are behaving well at the stands. No broken chair or any sort of vandalism as the case has been in the past,” said Saad.

The official hopes the same discipline will be maintained for the matches remaining in the tourney.