The Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) on Monday took the decision to postpone the U-23 Championship by two weeks.
In a statement released by the CECAFA Executive Director, Auka Gecheo, the tournament slated to take place in Ethiopia will start on 17th July, moving from the initial kickoff date of 3rd July.
“The CECAFA U-23 Championship has been pushed to kick-off July 17th, 2021 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The competition was earlier slated to start July 3rd, 2021,” confirmed the statement.
“But following a meeting that took place today and also attended by seven General Secretaries from CECAFA Member Associations via zoom, it was decided that the competition be postponed by two weeks.”
Gecheo indicates that the change has majorly been affected because of COVID-19 cases in different Member Associations.
“The change was necessitated by some of the Member Associations having their countries go into lockdown due to COVID- 19 and are struggling to get government approval to travel to the event.”
With South Sudan also still playing at the Arab FIFA Cup in Qatar, the CECAFA administrators thought it wise to push the kickoff date by two weeks.
Rwanda has so farnamed a 35-man squad that entered a residential camp ahead of the CECAFA tournament.
Players under 18 years of age are not allowed to participate in the U23s CECAFA tournament.
CU/abj/APA