By James Waindi in Dar es Salaam
Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye attributes the success of the 36th edition of the Cecafa Club Championships to the passionate Tanzania football fans and notes that it could not have been successful without them.
Despite receiving sponsorship of about Sh9 million from Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), the tournament organisers still had a large deficit and the void was filled by the positive turnout of fans in every match, crowned by the massive crowd of at least 60, 000 fans that attended the final between arch rivals Yanga and Simba.
The tournament has been dogged by uncertainty since its preferred dates were announced by the Cecafa congress in December last year, seeing it change venue twice and was at risk of not being held after Sudan made a last minute withdrawal from hosting it. But, it later turned out to be one of the best tournaments in recent years, in terms of competitiveness.
Initially it was planned to be hosted in Zanzibar, but when it turned out that the country could not, Sudan was given the go-ahead, with the El Merreikh Group of companies being the main sponsors, but the unrest in some parts of the country forced another change of venue.
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"I thank TBL for their sponsorship and TFF for support, but my greatest gratitude goes to the fans who filled the venues in every match and made it possible for us to clear our bills and also meet our organisation expenses," said Musonye.
The level of competition was high and with five matches in the knock-out level got to extra time and penalties.
