This year’s football world cup has been trumpeted by FIFA as a world cup for the African continent.

There is no doubt that soccer is huge in Africa, but the love of the beautiful game is by no means only an urban phenomenon.

The BBC’s Will Ross has been assessing the build up of excitement for the World Cup in the Ethiopian highlands.

About 700km north of the capital Addis Ababa in Lalibella, he met a group of nine year-old boys on their way to school.

Despite not being able to speak much English, they are fluent in the language of football.

Listen on BBC Radio Online

Tanzania soccer club champions Simba Sc have signed Ugandan international and St. George midfielder Patrick Ochan for reported fee of US dollars 60,000, according to the club’s website.

The player was revealed to the press and has been given the number 10 jersey, which belongs to Tanzanian international Uhuru Selemani, who is said to join the Egyptian side, Haras El Hodood.

Simba Vice Chairman Godfrey Nyange Kaburu has said coach Patrick Phiri was impressed by Ochan when he saw him play for the Ethiopian side St George FC during the recently concluded CECAFA Kagame Clubs Championship in Rwanda.

The midfielder was expected to fly back to Uganda and he will come back for the next season training in late July.

Ochan is the first player signed by Simba SC, as the club is determined to reinforce its side and defend its title and prepare for next year’s African Club Championships.

The 24-years-ol d Ochan was named on the CECAFA Clubs Championships best 16 performers, despite missing the final match against APR of Rwanda due to a dislocated shoulder injury he suffered against Rayon Sport.

Simba Vice-Chairman Godfrey Nyange ‘Kaburu’ confirmed that the club has already reached verbal agreement with the Ugandan international and he was expected to sign yesterday.

“Ochan is in the country to finalize the deal. He’ll sign the contract before returning back to Uganda to continue with the off-season break,” said Nyange but he could not reveal contract details.

Ochan weights 65kg and is 1.89m tall.

The loss however, should not diminish the Saints’ gallant effort to become the first Ethiopian side to reach the final of the tournament. The team was awarded $20,000 for finishing as runner-up.

Not too many people expected the team to go this far, so we say Congratulation St. George!

Here is the summary of St. George’s performance in the 2009/10 CECAFA Club Championship:

Group B Matches:

St. George 2 Rayon Sports 2

Salahadin Said (7’ & 62’)

St. George 5 Mafunzo Zanzibar 0

Salahadin Said, Adane Girma (2), Mohammed Nasser & Elias Mamo

Quarter-Final:

St. George 5 Telekom Djibouti 0

Adane Girma (5’), own goal, Salahadin Said (76’ & 85’) and Mesfin Kidane

Semi-Final:

St. George 3 Atraco 1

Adane Girma (2) and Salahadin Said

Final:

St. George 0 APR Rwanda 2

St. George’s Top Scorers:

Salahadin Said – 6 goals

Adane Girma – 5 goals

St. George returning to big time football following a two-year Fifa ban of their country scored two penalties through Salahadin Said in the seventh and 62^nd minutes. Rayon was buoyed by goals from Sina Jerome and Franck Makengo in the 22^nd and 47^th minutes respectively.

St. George’s Jean Claude Amougo was the Man of the Match. Their next match will be on Thursday against Mafunzo FC of Zanzibar

The tournament kicked off on Saturday when Rwanda’s league champion APR opened their campaign with a hard earned 2-1 win against Burundian champions Vital’O at Amahoro stadium here on Saturday.

Group A: APR (Rwanda), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Vital’O (Burundi) and Telkom (Djibouti)

Group B*: Rayon Club (Rwanda), St. George FC (Ethiopia) and Mafunzo (Zanzibar).

Group C: Atraco (Rwanda), Simba (Tanzania), URA (Uganda) and SOFAPAKA (Kenya)

*Heartland of Nigeria, who were expected to take part as an invitee team, withdrew from the competition at the last minute to concentrate on their domestic league.

The top 3 teams from Group A & C plus the top two from Group B will qualify for th Quarter-Finals.

 The winner will pocket $30,000 while first and second runners-up will walk away with $20,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Less than four weeks to go until the start of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, the hosts are still working to complete all the infrastructure.

Luanda, Angola (December 15, 2009) – Work is continuing on stadiums, roads and the main airport in Luanda – and not one ticket has yet gone on sale.

The pitch at the stadium in Luanda has reportedly had no maintenance for weeks because of contractual issues.

“It’s going to be a race against time to get everything ready,” one source told the AFP news agency.

But Angola’s public works minister Higinio Carneiro says there is nothing to worry about.

“The stadiums will be ready, they’re practically ready now – there will not be any difficulty hosting the tournament in January,” he said.

“We’re just dealing with a few aspects now, mainly at the Luanda stadium, things like the external and parking areas, but this is all ongoing and the stadiums will be ready at the end of this month.”

The minister said the Angolan government had spent more than a billion dollars on preparing for the competition.

“Perhaps it will be even more than that,” he said.

“If you take the contracts for the four stadiums, [they] had a value of 450 million dollars, but other things had to be done on top, like water, energy, the access roads.

“In the end it will actually be a lot more money that we were first talking about.”

The tournament kicks-off on 10 January when the hosts play Mali in Luanda.

The final takes place in the same stadium on 31 January with other games taking place in Lubanga, Benguela and Cabinda.

Nairobi, Kenya (December 14, 2009) – Defending Cecafa champions Uganda have retained their regional title after defeating Rwanda 2-0 in the final of the Cecafa Cup in Nairobi.

Dan Wagaluka opened the score with a long range effort just before half time.

Emmanuel Okwi scrambled the ball in from close range to give Uganda their 11th Cecafa trophy.

Their Scottish coach Bobby Williamson said it was a hard fought encounter.

“The second goal knocked the stuffing out of the Rwandans” he said.

“We’ve played better to be honest but in finals sometimes the occasion becomes a bit too much for some players and I felt that with a few of our guys, we’ve had to work hard to be successful”.

“I’m very pleased, I’ve got a good bunch of professionals to work with.

“They’re a great squad and we’ve been together in hotels for the last two weeks and I didn’t have a moment’s concern, and I can’t say that about some teams I’ve managed in the past” he said.

“This means everything to Ugandans” he said.

“It’s a big footballing nation, and it would be helpful if they were encouraged to watch more Ugandan football rather than the English Premiership”.

Less than 5,000 fans turned out to watch the regional final which has suffered from poor attendance since the exit of Kenya’s Harambee Stars in the quarter-finals.

They were defeated by Uganda in a repeat of last year’s final.

Earlier Zanzibar defeated mainland Tanzania 1-nil to finish third in the regional competition.

Nairobi, Kenya (December 14, 2009) – The Eritreans were knocked out of the Cecafa competition for East and Central African nations last week.

But when the team plane landed back home, it was reportedly only carrying the coach and an official.

The government, which is frequently accused of repression, denies any players are missing.

But the country’s football federation confirmed to Cecafa head Nicholas Musonye that the players had not returned.

Mr Musonye told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme it was the third time the Eritrean team had failed to return home after a tournament.

“The Eritrean federation have done their best to bring a team to the competition – unfortunately these boys had other ideas,” he said.

“Definitely they are in Nairobi – we have so many Eritreans here – they must be somewhere.”

He said he would establish the facts and hand the details on to the police.

The UN says hundreds of Eritreans flee the country every month.

Critics say the country’s repressive government, poverty and a harsh national service regime forces many to leave.

But the government denies that Eritreans are fleeing and accuses the UN of lying about the figures.