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It’s against that background that CECAFA presidents reached out to president Paul Kagame while attending the FIFA congress in Kigali on 16th March.
It’s no secret that Rwanda is currently the only country in the CECAFA region that has set the pace when it comes to investing in sports and infrastructure.
It’s against that background that CECAFA presidents reached out to president Paul Kagame while attending the FIFA congress in Kigali on 16th March.
According to the FUFA president Moses Magogo, the CECAFA presidents used the opportunity at the congress to implore Kagame to spread the gospel of investing in sports in other East African countries, which is the case in Rwanda.
“Hosting the FIFA Congress in Kigali provided us as CECAFA Presidents with an opportunity to request a meeting with H.E Paul Kagame,” Magogo tweeted on his official handle.
“Where we appealed to him to convince and interest other heads of state in the region to prioritize sports,” he added.
The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) is a twelve-country association that organizes over ten competitions on its calendar.
However, CECAFA has always struggled to consistently hold their various tournaments, mainly due to a lack of financial support and their respective governments’ support.
The CECAFA Kagame Cup is one of the competitions needing help to be consistently organized.
The clubs’ competition was last held in 2021, with Ugandan side Express F.C. winning it in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
President Kagame has taken a personal initiative in sports investment in Rwanda, with the construction of the Bank of Kigali Arena and the renovation of the Amahoro stadium being some of the significant sports investments made.
Rwanda made the headlines in 2021 when they sealed a 40M pounds shirt sleeve partnership with top English Premier League side Arsenal.
The Arsenal partnership followed an earlier three-year deal with French giants PSG in 2019 valued between $9M and $11M.
The partnership was aimed at promoting Rwanda’s tourism, advertised on the PSG women’s team as well as stadium branding.
CECAFA Members: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Zanzibar, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
CECAFA Competitions: CECAFA Kagame Cup, CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, U23, U20, U17 and U15 Championships, African Schools Championships, Women’s Championships.
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