Cecafa boss Musonye fumes at birth of Super Cup

The Super Cup tournament launched on Wednesday has come under fierce criticism from Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) Secretary General Nicholas Musonye.

According to Musonye, the Super Cup which is the brainchild of a local gaming firm and which involves clubs from Kenya, Tanzania as well as Zanzibar is meant to boot the annual Cecafa club championship off the door.

The competition is slated for June 5-11 in Dar-es-Salaam, the same month in which the regional club championship has customarily been played.

The Cecafa boss reiterated the tournament undermines the Cecafa calendar and that its organizers are ill motivated.

“We already have an established tournament, an all inclusive one that they can sponsor. In fact, we approached them for sponsorship last year but they turned us down.

“It is quite telling that they are coming up with a different version that collides with our activities, with only three countries out of the 12 Cecafa members in the picture,” Musonye told Citizen Digital.

Having failed to stage any tournament last year apart from the Women Challenge Cup in Uganda, the association is under pressure to deliver this year but Musonye says some dark forces are hell bent on frustrating their efforts.

“If a person thinks killing Cecafa is killing Musonye they are mistaken. I’m not Cecafa, hence anything done should be about the good of football and not how I feel or react towards it.

“I have talked to stakeholders from other countries on the way forward. Some have already lamented the move isolates them, and soon we will be announcing which way we go,” Musonye charged.

He also took issue with the composition of clubs in the tournament and singled out the inclusion of Nakuru All Stars as ‘questionable’.

“You read a lot of mischief when you hear a club like Nakuru All Stars in the list of competing teams. What criterion was used to have a National Super League side in the tournament yet the tournament is labeled a Super Cup?

“The owner is known and his relationship with the sponsor is clear too. This spirit cannot take our football anywhere,” the long-serving official thundered.

Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Tusker FC, record holders Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards are the other local sides picked for the Super Cup.

Tanzania’s Vodacom Premier League champions Yanga SC, Simba SC and Zanzibar’s Singinda United and Jang’ombe Boys complete the eight-team set up.

It adds to his tale of ‘forces’ conspiring against him and continues to paint a picture of private angst. During the latest Confederation of African Football (CAF) Ordinary Congress held in Ethiopia this year, Musonye scrambled as he gave a report of his region’s activities for 2016.

He stuck to the same plot when told Citizen Digital a glaring lack of support and goodwill from some member associations was ‘killing the Cecafa dream’.

“It is manifesting itself much clearer,” he said in a telephone interview.

Kenyan clubs have so far confirmed their participation at the Super Cup and have refused to get hooked on the Cecafa debacle.

Efforts to reach Tanzania Football Federation president Jamal Malinzi on his thoughts on the tournament proved futile, with our calls going unanswered.