CECAFA Appoints New Executive Director

The Council of East and Central African Football Associations (CECAFA) has announced John Auka Gacheo as the new Executive Director.

Auka, a former SuperSport East Africa General Manager, takes over from Nicholas Musonye who stepped down after 20 years at the helm.

In his acceptance speech, Auka admitted being humbled by the council’s decision and that he is ready to roll his sleeves and build on his predecessor’s work.

“I know the spotlight will now be on me but with the help of everyone at CECAFA, I know we can together continue with the good projects initiated by predecessor Musonye. It is not easy to fit in the shoes but what I promise is to do my best,” he said.

“CECAFA is now directly in charge of nine competitions and that includes women and youth tournaments. FIFA now supports us but we need to work hard to secure more sponsors. We can achieve that by having good competitions that will attract more fans to the stadia,” he added.

The new Executive Director is expected to plan with the competitions team to fix dates for the nine tournaments the region is meant to host this year.

CECAFA is home to 12 member football associations including Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Ethiopia.

The region is perceived as the weakest in terms of quality of football talents in Africa and the member nations have for some time suspiciously eyed each other with suspicion of religious and intra-region affiliations.

This year Tanzania will host the CECAFA Kagame Club Championships, while Rwanda and Sudan will host the Zonal qualifiers for the AFCON U-17 and U-20 respectively.

Djibouti for the first time will also host the CECAFA U-16 Boys Challenge Cup, while Burundi will host the CECAFA U-20 Challenge Cup and the CECAFA U-17 Women’s Challenge Cup.

Uganda will host the inaugural CECAFA U-20 Women’s Challenge Cup, while Rwanda will also host the CECAFA Women’s Challenge Cup.