Sudan crowned CECAFA championship title

In a ferocious cup final encounter followed by a penalty shoot out, the only nation to represent East Africa in the 2008 Ghana nations’ soccer cup final, Sudan, won the 34th East and Central African (CECAFA) Championship title held in Tanzania.
The newly crowned champions, Sudan, who traveled to the host nation with the national squad second strings performed well above expectation proving the national coach’s pre tournament announcement that his side would claim the championship title even if they brought only two senior team players.
Building confidence on their way up to the cup final and crushing Burundi in the semi final clash, Sudan came stronger in the cup final against determined to win the day Rwanda that reached the cup final defeating one of the tournament’s favorite Uganda in the semi final clash. The tournament’s top scorer with six goals, one of the only two senior players, Abdelhamid Amarria out smarted two of the Rwandan defenders to put his country ahead with a first half header. Back from the dressing room the team extended their lead in less than a minute in to the second half through Madther Eltaab who out paced two defenders to find the back of the net. Many concluded the day belongs to Sudan. However, it took only two minutes before Rwanda managed to grab the life line through Haruna who finished a fantastic move from the mid field. One minute to the hour Mulenda headed in the equalizer to break the Sudanese young talents who lost every touch then after. Motivated by the surprise come back, Rwanda took the game away from flabbergasted Sudan although they failed to connect the ball with the back of the net. The normal time ended in a two all draw and it was Rwanda that dominated the extra time also but finding the net still came out the most difficult job.
Rwanda was the favorites in the penalty shoot out for the Sudanese youngsters were hardly calm and supposedly unable to concentrate on the job at hand. However, things turned out in favor of Sudan who managed to find the back of the net in four occasions while Rwanda missed twice, courtesy of Ismael and Elias. Six – four the final score line Sudan took the zonal soccer championship title for the first time and became the best side of the tournament despite lining the second stringers. “We deserve the title although it was after a ferocious encounter”, said the cup winners’ manager Tagel Abbas who announced ten of the players are to join the senior side now in preparation in Spain for the 2008 African nation’s cup final. The record nine time champions Uganda took third place defeating Burundi 2-0. It is to be recalled that the Ethiopian national side kicked out of the tournament in the group phase after a 3-1 defeat and a draw while Eritrea, the tiny nation with little history in soccer, made it in to the knock out stages.

African Cup of Nations

The African Cup of Nations, also referred to as the African Nations Cup (ANC) is the main international association football competition in Africa. It is sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and was first held in 1957. Since 1968, it has been held every two years in even numbered years.
In 1957 there were only three participating nations: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. South Africa was to compete, but was disqualified due to the apartheid policies of the government then in power. Since then, the field has grown to include almost every African nation, making it necessary to hold a qualifying tournament. The number of participants in the final tournament reached 16 in 1998 (16 teams were to compete in 1996 but Nigeria withdrew, reducing the field to 15), and since then, the format has been unchanged, with the sixteen teams being drawn into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a “knock-out” stage.
The nation with the most cup wins is Egypt, with five, followed by Ghana and Cameroon, who have won four titles each. Three different trophies have been awarded during the tournament’s history, with Ghana and Cameroon winning the first two versions to keep after each of them won the tournament three times. The current trophy was first awarded in 2002.

EFF general national assembly called for Tuesday

At long last majority members of the Ethiopian National Football Federations called the long over due general national assembly for the coming Thursday January 3rd, 2008 at Hilton Hotel.
At the press conference held at Bole International hotel on Wednesday, representatives of 2/3rd of the stakeholders unanimously agreed to call the general assembly that incorporates all member federations, regional states and clubs. According to vice chairman of the coordinating body, Ato Afework Ayele, the majority of the country’s football stakeholders came in to agreement to call the general national assembly following the Ethiopian Football Federation executive committee’s failure to execute its responsibility bestowed to it at the Mekele general assembly months back. “Exhausting every option to help survive Ethiopian football we have now reached to the final phase that is calling the general national assembly. The assembly has been called in accordance with EFF regulations”, said vice chairman Kahesay Tsegay of the Dire Dawa federation. In his part Lieutenant Sisay Berhanu of Amhara Region sent a message calling every stakeholder to attend the general national assembly. “The co-coordinators’ effort to convince the incumbent EFF executive committee members to come in to terms and call the general assembly failed due to their lackluster attitude”, remarked Sisay Berhanu.
Though dates had been allotted to call the assembly only to get forgotten on many previous occasions and it is difficult to predict the latest one would take place, it is announced the general national assembly kicks-off its two days meeting on Thursday at Hilton.

What a Christmas break for Inter Milan and Real Madrid

While English premier league players are tied up in the iron cold Boxing Day fixtures, that is four matches in ten days, their Italian and Spain counter parts are out in world famous beach spots enjoying their holiday vacation.
Italian serie “A” and Spanish La Liga leaders Inter Milan and Real Madrid are the luckiest ones for they traveled to those destinations securing top places on their league tables.
Crushing city rivals Ac Milan 2-1, the only unbitten Italian side so far in the season, Inter Milan, sky rocketed its lead to seven points clear off second place AS Roma. European and world champions Ac Milan were expected to abort Inter’s unbitten record on the derby match at San Siro. True to the expectation, Milan took the lead through Andrea Pirlo’s magnificent free kick only to get cancelled through Ricardo Cruz’s equalizer followed by Esteban Cambiasso’s winning strike in the second half. Defending champions Inter are now on top of the table with 43 points from seventeen matches out of which thirteen are victories while four are draws. Roberto Mancini’s latest ambition is not to win the title for the third consecutive season which is already in the bag but taking the title with out a defeat. The rest of the pack led by far second Roma seem hardly to catch up with the leaders.
Defeating Sampdoria with a 2-0 score line, both goals from Roma golden boy Totti, As Roma have thirty six points - a point clear from third place Juventus who defeated Siena at the last match before Serie “A” three weeks winter break.
The Spanish league two weeks break came at the very right time for defending champions Real Madrid who defeated arch enemies Barcelona at Nou Camp for the third time in twenty four years. In form Julio Baptista who flourished under German manager Bernard Schuster scored the one and only winning half volleyed goal nine minutes before the break. With out dribble wizard Lionel Messi who is busy nursing his knee injury, Frank Rijkaard’s side failed to score at home in front of 100,000 spectators. Though back from long injury Samuel Eto’o, unsettled former world best player Ronaldinho and yet to find his Arsenal form Thierry Henry were available, Barcelona appeared a side out of steam to catch up with the league leaders - now seven points clear with 41 points. Splashing USD 172 million for the new season, Real Madrid have built the strongest squad in the Spanish league that has good hopes of heralding its 31st championship title. Second in the table Barcelona have 34 points just a point clear off third place Espanol, a side threatening Barca for second place. Espanol’s 2-1 away victory meant an enjoyable two weeks vacation thanks to the winter break. Villarreal are fourth with 32 points after a home draw, followed by Athletico Madrid with 31 points.   

Highltghts sports 2007

In the sporting arena, 2007 was a remarkable year even by the high standards of our athletes. Double Olympic medalist Gete Wami was crowned the first ever world marathon series champion that goes with a USD 500,000 award. Gete collected the highest points of the five races to grab the top spot. In the meantime, world all time greatest long distance athlete Haile Gebre Selassie crushed the four year record in Germany setting a new one in 2:04:26 hours. The climax of Ethiopian athletics achievement in 2007 is Meseret Defar’s crowning of IAAF world best athlete of the year 2007. Meseret did not lose a single race in the year and became the first African woman to the accolade. Coming to the most popular sport in the nation, 2007 is the year that everything soccer in Ethiopia went down the drains. At the latest it is as good as saying no football federation or no league championship. The humiliation was completed two years ago when the Ethiopian national side was kicked out of CECAFA tournament at the group stage.