Road to Brazil begins with $0.4m deal for EA teams
George Owino of Kenya controls the ball under pressure from Mrisho Ngasa of Tanzania during their Cecafa semi final match at Nelson Mandela stadium in Namboole, Kampala Uganda last year. File Photo
Soccer standards in the region could improve soon following a $450,000 (Ksh36 million) sponsorship deal by East African Breweries.
The deal, spread over the next four years, is part of the company’s long-term campaign to see one of the region’s teams participate in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Through its Serengeti brand, the company will sponsor Africa’s oldest soccer tournament — the East and Central Africa Senior Challenge Cup, starting with the 2010 edition to be staged in Tanzania from November 27 to December 12.
“For several years, EABL and its Tusker brand, in particular, have been great supporters of football in the region.
“Our assurance to the football fraternity is that we will play our part, offer our assistance, monetary and otherwise, to support soccer throughout East and Central Africa,” said group managing director Seni Detu last week.
He said EABL’s and Cecafa member countries’ ambitions would be set higher. “Together with Cecafa, we want to put in place systems to ensure that a team, or teams, from the region plays at the World Cup in Brazil.
The partnership with the council of East and Central Africa Football Association has been dubbed “The Road to Brazil,” say Adetu and Nicholas Musonye, the association’s secretary.
Musonye said the programme would start at the kick-off of the Tusker Cecafa Challenge Cup. “Our partnership with EABL will be the most serious to date and will transform football in the region. It will change and shape the destiny of soccer locally,” Musonye said.
EABL will parade the Tusker Cecafa Challenge Cup trophy to the countries where consumers of Tusker brand have a great passion for football, including Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and Uganda, before it arrives in Tanzania in time for the start of the tournament.
“Our support for the 2010 Cecafa Tusker Cup signals the start of a long-term strategy in which we will engage the football fraternity in the region with the aim of promoting football,” said Adetu, when revealing the trophy’s tour itinerary.
Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia and Malawi have been invited as guest teams in this year’s tournament. Initially, Cameroon had shown interest but it pulled out.
Musonye said the shame of Cecafa members missing out altogether from the recent Fifa World Cup in South Africa should never be repeated.
“Cecafa is the most active of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) zones. It is only fair that we grab at least one of the five World Cup slots reserved for the continent,” he said.
“The money we are getting from EABL will be directed to our teams so that they can produce their best in Dar es Salaam and in the future,” he said.
Teams and officials will be flown to Dar and offered accommodation and transport. The prize money for the winners will be $30,000 (Ksh2.4 million). Uganda Cranes are the current holders of the title.
