This tournament will be hosted by Almerrikh, the Champion of Sudan, and it will kick start on 30th of June 2009 and last until 12th of July 2009, the 26th matches of the tournament will takes places in three different venues, Almerrikh stadium at Omdurman, Khartoum stadium at Khartoum and Port Sudan stadium in Eastern Sudan.
12 teams are participating in the tournament from different 10 different countries with Sudan and Kenya participating with two teams each. The teams are Almerrikh SC (Sudan), Hay El-Arab SC (Sudan), TP Mazembe (DR Congo) (Invited), Tusker FC (Kenya), Mathare United (Kenya), KCC FC (Uganda), Kartileh Djibsat (Djibouti), Prisons FC (Tanzania), Miembeni FC (Zanzibar), Benaadir Telecom (Somalia) , AS Inter Star (Burundi) & Atraco FC (Rwanda).
Worth mentioning Almerrikh has won the tournament once in the year 1986, which had been held in Tanzania, beating in the final Young Africans (Tanzania) 4-2 in the penalty shoot out.
History of CECAFA:
The Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in Eastern Africa. It is also an affiliate of CAF. It is arguably the oldest sub-regional football organization in Africa.
Members of CECAFA, Burundi, Djibouti,Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar.
CECAFA was founded unofficially in 1927 and the competitions were sponsored by major Nairobi based soap-manufacturing firm Gossage (owned by Lever). The formation of CECAFA is often falsely attributed to William Gossage, founded of the Gossage company but he died in 1877, some 50 years before the first contest so it would not be possible.
What is known however is that the tournament has very close links with Nairobi in Kenya and this is still where the CECAFA headquarter Office is located.
The first tournament was contested between Kenya and Uganda which saw Kenya win 3-1 on aggregate over the two legged affair.
The tournament became known as the "Gossage Cup" until the mid-sixties when it became known as the "East African Challenge Cup". Some sources suggest that the tournament had its name changed due to Kenya's new found independence in 1963.
