By Suleiman Jongo, The Citizen reporter
Dar es Salaam. This year’s Cecafa Tusker Challenge Cup kicks off on Friday, bringing together 12 teams, with different jersey colours, tactics, but bringing together an all East and Central African football.

With such a gathering, the local and visiting fans will not only be expecting football entertainment from our regional footballers, but the event might also appear to be a hair style show, which now  appears to be common in major events like the World Cup.

You might have seen most of the players going bald or having some of the wildest yet craziest haircuts by some  the football superstars, as it was the case in the previous events.

Last year’s event, which also took place in Dar es Salaam witnessed a number of players having different style of hair cut or plaiting, for-example, several Kenyan players had hair  cut styles.

Similarly, other teams like the hosts, Kilimanjaro Stars, with most of the players opting for hair styles, like first choice goal keeper, Juma Kaseja

Frank Emmanuel, one of the fans says that he expects different hair- styles  during the event.

“It has now become common, we see players in the European league and World Cup, it’s  very beautiful, you can be tempted to watch a player or can easily identify him through his hair style”, says Emmanuel.

He says for-example, that the  2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, had a few odd looks, for an instance Brazil’s Ronaldinho with  dreadlocks.

Craziest fan’s support
The Stadium sets to be decorated by countries’ flags, with the noisiest fans with vuvuzelas for them to standing with their teams in wins and losses.

This is because fans can be a driving force in changing the face of the game , but as usual, many of them appear to be off-field linesmen, referees and coaches,  especially when they think of biased decisions or  substitutions.

Fixture
Rwanda has been put in Group A of the event, which will climax on December 10.
In Group A, Rwanda will face hosts Tanzania Mainland, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Last year, Tanzania eliminated Rwanda in the quarter finals before moving on to lift the lucrative regional tournament title.

Elsewhere, Uganda, Burundi, Zanzibar and Somalia have been placed in Group B while Sudan who qualified for 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals will meet Kenya, Malawi and Namibia in Group C.
Group A
Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Group B
Uganda, Burundi, Zanzibar and Somalia.
Group C
Sudan, Kenya, Malawi and Namibia, which replaces Eritrea.

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