Rwanda's March towards Hosting The Afcon Tournament

While Tanzania was comprehensively thrashed by Uganda and Kenya had to endure an embarrassing exit in the hands of Burundi, Rwanda battled it with Ethiopia before narrowly losing on penalties shoot out in the CHAN qualifiers. So while Uganda will once again grace the CHAN tournament in South Africa, the two football-snoring sisters, Tanzania and Kenya will be thinking on how to qualify for the next tournament in 2016. On the other hand, Rwanda will be thinking on how to put up a better show as the CHAN 2016 host country.

However much we are getting used to the fact that Rwanda is more organized it is still embarrassing to contemplate the fact that the smallest nation in East Africa will be hosting a continental tournament once again while the rest are making political noise of hosting tournaments without actually tendering any bid. How comes, Tanzania, 34 times bigger than Rwanda can only boast of hosting the annual boring tournament called CECAFA where group losers have a chance to qualify for the knock out stage? Can’t we start by bidding for continental youth tournaments like under 17 and 20? 

Kenya, the regional business hub and the strongest economy with an annual budget  12 times bigger than Rwanda has been making political noise of bidding for the AFCON tournament for a long time without showing any real intent. Kenya successfully hosted the 1987 All Africa Games. They also won the AFCON 1996 bid but could not financially commit themselves. CAF subsequently withdrew the rights and granted South Africa that opportunity. Since then Kenya has expressed intention of bidding without actually bidding.

We may shrug off Rwanda as a tiny country that is trying too much to punch above its weight, we might even dismiss the CHAN tournament as a  poor sister to AFCON but the fact remain Rwanda is on the right track. They are  closer to hosting the AFCON than the rest of EAC members. They have begun by successfully hosting the under 17 African youth championship, a tournament that involves 8 teams. They earned the rare chance of representing Africa in the FIFA under 17 championship, a feat  no other EAC member has achieved. They have now graduated to hosting the CHAN, a 16-team tournament that involves almost the same logistics as the  AFCON. Next on their ambitions plate will be hosting AFCON as the rest fight to host CECAFA.