体坛英语资讯：Kenya withdraws from hosting regional CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup_娱乐

体坛英语资讯：Kenya withdraws from hosting regional CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup

NAIROBI, Nov. 13 -- Kenya has pulled the rag on Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) by declining to host this year's regional Senior Challenge Cup.

Nicholas Musonye, CECAFA secretary-general confirmed on Tuesday that the oldest competition bringing teams from Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will not be staged this year.

A change of date by Confederations of Africa Football (CAF) to bring forward the annual Champions League and Confederations Cup to December and November also threw the spanners in the works denying CECAFA time to secure an alternative host.

"There was a spirited attempt by us to get an alternatives host, but the timing was also impossible. The CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup matches will this time start in November through to December from the preliminary round," said Musonye on Tuesday.

Kenya are the defending champions after beating Zanzibar in last year's competition. However, CECAFA now wants to align their calendar with that of FIFA in order to avoid a repeat clash.

"We are now aligning our regional competition calendar and we will adopt dates picked by FIFA. It will mean we reshuffle some of the competition including the Kagame Cup and Senior Challenge Cup, which will now be played in June," added Musonye.

"Tanzania and Rwanda have shown interest to host Kagame Cup while the Senior Challenge Cup will be played in early July, though we are yet to secure a host nation. That will be known after our general assembly next month in Uganda."