Kenya draw Uganda in Afcon U17 zonal qualifiers

IN DAR ES SALAAM

Kenya's national Under-17 team has been pooled in Group “B” of the 2019 Africa U17 Cup of Nations qualifiers, Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) zonals slated for Tanzania next month.

Kenya was pooled alongside arch-rivals Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and South Sudan while Group “A” has hosts Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Sudan.

The overall winner of the two-week competition joins seven other teams at the tournament to be hosted by Tanzania next year.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) said in July last year that the qualifying competition will be split into regions.

Apart from the hosts, each of the six zones receive one spot in the final tourney and the zone of the defending champions gets an additional spot.

Mali from the West-A Zone are the defending champions.

Central-East region consists of 11 Caf members namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.

“We are ready for the qualifiers and call upon teams from this region to prepare well so that we can have competitive qualifiers,” said Cecafa Secretary Nicholas Musonye during a press conference on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam.

Kenya kick off their campaign, to be staged at Azam Sports Complex and National Stadium, against South Sudan on August 14.