The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) president Leodegar Tenga.
What you need to know:
Tenga, the former Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) president, retained his seat as the Cecafa chief in 2011 in the elections held in Dar es Salaam. He will be seeing out his four-year reign in November.
Dar es Salaam. The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) president Leodegar Tenga says he will not seek re-election when the regional body holds its general election in November.
Tenga, the former Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) president, retained his seat as the Cecafa chief in 2011 in the elections held in Dar es Salaam. He will be seeing out his four-year reign in November.
The former Taifa Stars player made a remark during the closing ceremony of the 2015 All Africa Games in Brazzaville where he was as a representative of the African soccer governing body, CAF.
Tenga, who has leading roles in CAF committees, disclosed that he would be vacating the chairmanship of Cecafa.
“I will not seek re-election in November, but I will always be available to play my part in developing sport in the region,” he said.
He continued: “I have always encouraged handing over of responsibilities after certain time limits. I left the TFF and now perhaps it’s time we at Cecafa chose someone else, someone responsible and resourceful, to steer us to a brighter future. And we shall give support to the right person.”
According to him, the current Cecafa secretary general, Nicholas Musonye, of Kenya should be retained to manage a smooth transition.
“He is a great asset. He is a man who works hard and brings results. He calls it as it is, but also implements decisions made by the Executive Committee,” he said.
The election for the chairmanship of Cecafa is planned to take place during a congress alongside this year’s Cecafa Challenge Cup to be hosted by Ethiopia in mid-November.
Brazzaville lessons
Tenga hailed Sudan who he said had done pretty well in the men’s tournament while a young Tanzanian girls’ side, Twiga Stars, had learnt a worthy lesson.
“I urge the Cecafa nations to pay more serious attention to football at these stages. There was a great and fierce contest in football and clearly the passion at this level is tremendous.”
Tenga also said the compact Olympic Centre in Kintele was such an incredible facility that he would like countries in the Cecafa region to build such facilities.
Passion
In Brazzaville, Ghana women beat Cameroon in the final to take the Gold medal and Senegal downed Burkina Faso 1-0 for the men’s Gold. Both matches at the Massamba-Debat Stadium in the middle of the city, venue for the inaugural All Africa Games in 1965, attracted sell-out crowds in a country where soccer is incredible passion. The Congolese women’s team exited in the preliminary stage after draws with Cote d’Ivoire and Tanzania while their men lost 3-1 to Cameroon in the semi-finals and 3-5 to Nigeria in the Bronze medal playoff.
