Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye addresses the media at Azam Sports Complex on July 3, 2018. Nation Media Group
Rwanda’s national Under-17 team has been pooled in Group A of the 2019 Africa U17 Cup of Nations qualifiers, Zonal Qualifiers for CECAFA region slated for Tanzania next month.
Rwanda is pooled against hosts Tanzania, Burundi, Somalia and Sudan in Group A while Group B is composed of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and South Sudan.
The overall winner of the two-week competition joins seven other teams at the tournament to be hosted by Tanzania next year.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) said in July last year that the qualifying competition will be split into regions.
Apart from the hosts, each of the six zones receives one spot in the final tourney and the zone of the defending champions gets an additional spot. Mali from the West-A Zone is the defending champions.
Central-East region consists of 11 Caf members namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.
In a media briefing on Tuesday held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the Cecafa Secretary Nicholas Musonye said, “The CAF U-17 Zonal qualifiers for our region will be held in August and hosts Tanzania are ready to for the qualifying tournament. Participating teams are urged to prepare well such that we can be able to have strong representatives in the final tournament next year,”
Rwanda will kick-off their campaign against Sudan on August 11 at the National Stadium. The Junior Wasps will take on Burundi on August 13, then Somalia on August 16 before finalizing their group stage campaign against hosts Tanzania on August 21.
CAF U-17 Zonal Qualification
CECAFA Qualifiers
Group A: Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Sudan
Group B: Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Djibouti
Group A Fixtures
August 11
Rwanda vs Sudan
Tanzania vs Burundi
August 13
Sudan vs Somalia
Burundi vs Rwanda
August 16
Somalia vs Rwanda
Sudan vs Tanzania
August 18
Burundi vs Sudan
Tanzania vs Somalia
August 21
Somalia vs Burundi
Rwanda vs Tanzania
