Africa-Press – Uganda. The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to cause havoc to the sports world, forcing several gaming events to the halt.
Monday night’s casualty is the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup that has been pushed forward by a fortnight. The tournament was originally slated to run from July 3 but is now scheduled for July 17.
The organisers were forced to take the decision to allow members more time to handle different coronavirus-related challenges in their countries.
Lockdown
Uganda is currently under a 42-day total lockdown while Rwanda and Western parts of Kenya are under partial lockdowns.
“The Cecafa U-23 Championship has been pushed to kick-off on July 17, 2021,” the Cecafa executive director Auka Gacheo stated on Monday evening after a zoom meeting with seven Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the respective member associations in the region.
“The change was necessitated by some of the member associations having their countries in lockdown due to COVID- 19 and are struggling to get government approval to travel to the event.”
Arab Cup
Some members of the South Sudan team are currently under quarantine in Qatar after failing to take part in the Fifa Arab Cup due to infections in the team. They can only leave Qatar after July 6.
Tanzania also asked for more time to allow their league season to complete by July 19.
This reporter has also learnt that the draws that were scheduled for last Monday were postponed because several federations have not complied with the registration process that requires each to pay a mandatory $20,000 (Shs72m) fee before entry.
This year’s tournament is to be hosted in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. It is largely reserved for players below 23 years with an exception of only three players above that age.
