2011 CECAFA: Ethiopia replaces Eritrea in Group C

The initial draw was conducted last week but following Eritrea failure to turn up for the tournament due to lack of funds for their national team’s preparations, CECAFA had to reorganise the groups.

Tanzanian Football Federation (TFF) Secretary General, Angetile Osiah told the press on Wednesday afternoon in Dar es Salaam that Eritrea never confirmed their participation.

To accommodate the changes, the pools have been redrawn with Namibia replacing Ethiopia in Group A while Ethiopia replaces Eritrea in Group C.

The 2011 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup was officially launched in Dar es Salaam last week with a US$420,000 sponsorship from Serengeti Breweries, through their Tusker brand.

The event will run from November 25 to December 10 with the winners of this year’s competition pocketing $30,000, second and third place sides get $20,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Here are the groups:

Group A: Tanzania, Rwanda, Namibia, Djibouti
Group B: Uganda, Burundi, Zanzibar, Somalia
Group C: Sudan, Kenya, Malawi,  Ethiopia

Partial list of Fixtures:

25 November: Somalia vs Burundi (2pm); Zanzibar vs Uganda (4pm)
26 November: Tanzania vs Rwanda
27 November: Namibia vs Djibouti; Zanzibar vs Burundi
28 November: Sudan vs Ethiopia; Kenya vs Malawi; Somalia vs Uganda
29 November: Rwanda vs Namibia; Djibouti vs Tanzania
30 November: Ethiopia vs Kenya; Malawi vs Sudan
01 December: Somalia vs Zanzibar; Burundi vs Uganda
02 December: Rwanda vs Djibouti; Ethiopia vs Malawi
03 December: Kenya vs Sudan; Tanzania vs Namibia

At the end of the preliminaries, two top placed teams from each group will advance into the quarter-finals and will be joined by two best third placed teams.

05 Dec : Quarter-Finals 1: Winner Group A vs Second best third placed team
05 Dec : Quarter-Finals 2: Winner Group B vs Runner-UP Group C
06 Dec : Quarter-Finals 3: Winner Group C vs Best third placed Team
06 Dec : Quarter-Finals 4: Runners-Up Group A vs Runner-Up Group B

08 Dec 15:00 Semi-Finals I : Winners Quarter-Finals 1 vs 2
08 Dec 15:00 Semi-Finals II: Winners Quarter-Finals 3 vs 4

10 Dec 14:00 Third Place play-off : Losers Semi-Finals I vs II
10 Dec 16:00 Finals: Winners Semi-Finals I vs II