Pomp and colour mark end of Cecafa championship

By Ernest Ndunda in Dar

Pomp and colour marked the end of the Cecafa Kagame Club Championships at the 60,000 capacity National Stadium in Dar-es-Salaam at the weekend.

Immediately after final whistle by Burundian referee Thiery Nkurunziza, the stadium was lit with fireworks as Yanga fans celebrated their team’s 2-0 win over Azam in the final of the tournament, which attracted 11 teams.

 Thousands of Yanga fans in their traditional yellow and green T-shirts cheered the team throughout the match as tension mounted between Yanga and Simba fans who were supporting Azam.

The Yanga fans trekked for over 10km through the busy Kariokor area, dancing and blowing vuvuzelas to tell the entire Dar-es-Salaam that they were the champions.

Cars blared their horns, while other elated fans flew high the club’s flag in support of their team as activities along the stadium street came to a standstill.

The bus carrying the players also snaked through most of the Dar-es-Salaam streets in celebration mood as players acknowledged greetings from the screaming fans.

However, as Yanga fans were in celebration mood, Azam air-conditioned bus left carrying supporters as players left in their private cars to their Club House, which also houses most of them.

Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye said the best team won the trophy as referees exercised their professionalism throughout the tournament.

“You will have people with varying views, but the best team won the tournament. I thank God as all went on well despite a few hiccups,” said Musonye.

“The tournament was competitive and I thank our patron the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame for his support to the tournament,” added Musonye.

Musonye said Kagame Club Championships had become one of the toughest tournaments in Africa and called for more sponsors to come on board.

“We want to accommodate more teams but we can not do so due to lack of sufficient funds,” said Musonye.

Yanga coach Tom Saintfiet said: “We were not in the game completely in the first half, thus allowing our opponents to dominate, but we bounced back strongly in the second half and went ahead to win,” said Saintfiet.

Azam coach Stewart John Hall said his boys could have wrapped the match in the first half as they had more openings.