Report - East Africa Cup - Moshi June - July 2005
Some
background information
The
tournament took place in Moshi (Tanzania) during the period June 28 – July 3 –
2005. The participants arrived June 28 and departed July 3.
Objectives
Since
its inception the East Africa Cup has the main objective expressed through the slogan
“Empower youths through sports”. The intention is that the East Africa Cup
shall be established as an annual tournament for youth between 12 – 20 years of
age, in which youth from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Norway can meet and where
the focus will be on education as much as football.
Education
objectives:
- HIV/AIDS
information through football / dance / drama / music and seminars.
- Workshops
with the topics: Referee training, Kicking AIDS Out games, leadership
training, coaching and First Aid courses.
- Gender
equality will be in focus at this tournament. Girls shall participate as
players, referees and coaches.
As
was the case in 2004 Moshi was the chosen location for the tournament. The
reason for the choice was that Moshi was relatively easily accessible for most
participants. We are also now generating a good relationship with the host
community in Moshi – ranging from the political authorities to the various
venues and facilities that were taken in use during the tournament.
The
participants travelled by bus to Moshi from all over East Africa. Accommodation
for the participants was primarily at VETA. Food was served by a catering
company – the Carnival Catering Company - at the various venues and VETA and
the Pentecostal seminar three times each day. The catering company did a very
good job – serving app. 800 people daily for 6 days with good food.
Referee seminar
Prior
to the tournament implemented a referee seminar which lasted 4 days.
The main
objectives of this seminar were:
- To
ensure the East Africa Cup was officiated with the best match officials
from East Africa.
- To
update referee’s with the amendments of law’s of the game.
- To
promote networking between referees from the three countries in the
region.
The
seminar was held during the period June 25-28. 40 referees attended the
seminar. Kenya was represented by 15 MYSA referees including instructors who
also officiated some of the matches, Tanzania was represented by 17 referees
from the Football Association of Tanzania (F.A.T), and Uganda was represented
by 8 referees from the Federation of Ugandan Football. Of the 40 referees 7
were women. Some of the challenges identified durring this seminar were to
improve the gender balance, and to address the language barriers (Tanzanians –
Swahili, Ugandans – English).
The
seminar definitely improved the coherency/consistency and quality of the
refereeing during the tournament. And it created a team spirit among the referees.
The
tournament
The
participating teams came from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The football
tournament was divided into 4 categories, based on age and sex.
·
Boys
under 16
·
Boys
under 20
·
Girls
under 16
·
Girls
under 20
39
teams from participated; 9 teams from Uganda, 9 teams from Kenya and 21 teams from Tanzania. The participating teams came from 8 different organizations. EMIMA
– Tanzania, Christian Sport Contact (CHRISC) - Uganda, CHRISC Kenya, Youth
Sport Contact CHRISC – Tanzania, Mathare Youth Sport Association (MYSA) – Right
to Play – Tanzania, Kwanza International School Tanzania and Bring the children
from the street - Uganda.
Each
team consisted of 15 players and 2 leaders, where the coach was included. The
low number of players and leaders in each team gave more teams the chance to
participate in the tournament.
In
total nearly 800 people participated in the tournament (including referees,
caterers, organising committee, Norwegian volunteers etc).
The
football tournament started on Tuesday June 28 with an opening ceremony in the
evening. The opening ceremony took place at VETA in Moshi. The Police Academy brass band played the various national anthems. And welcoming speeches were
held by both Moshi authorities and the tournament authorities.
The
daily program consisted of breakfast at 7.00 AM, tournament matches between
0900 and 1630. Seminars were held between 1630 and 1800. Between 1800 and 1900
was supper.
New
this year was the provision of evening entertainment. Each country had the
responsibility of a separate evening of entertainment. Tanzanian participants
provided the entertainment on Wednesday, Kenya provided the entertainment on
Thursday and Uganda provided the entertainment on Friday.
The
final matches were played on Saturday.
All
the games were played on the fields provided at VETA, Moshi technical School,
Kibo Paper and the Memorial Stadium. All the finals were played at the Memorial
stadium. On the Saturday the Organising Committee played the Norwegian Volunteers
as part of the entertainment between the finals.
Tournament results:
Girls
under 16
- CHRISC
Nairobi - Kenya
- MYSA
- Kenya
- MYSA
- Kenya
Girls under
20
- MYSA
- Kenya
- CHRISC
Kampala - Uganda
- CHRISC
Lowero - Uganda
Boys
under 16
- MYSA -
Kenya
- Right
to Play – Tanzania.
- EMIMA -
Tanzania
Boys under
20
- MYSA
- Kenya
- EMIMA
- Tanzania
- CHRISC
Mbale – Uganda
Positive tournament impacts
This
year the tournament functioned very well in virtually every aspect. Food was
excellent and provided timely and amply. The refereeing was very good and
consistent. The entertainment and the tournament games provided an excellent
platform for further networking between the participating youth. And the
facilities provided – especially VETA – proved to be very flexible and usable
for the various tournament activities. The accommodation provided was also
adequate. This will further improve next year as VETA are building more
dormitories and we hope therefore to provide accommodation for all the
participants at one facility.
This
year we were also successful in implementing the various seminars. The
participants received excellent presentations on themes ranging from leadership
training, first aid and Kicking aids out issues. The coaches had daily seminars
on coaching techniques. And the referees had as mentioned an extensive initial
seminar prior to the tournament.
The
partnerships underpinning the tournament also functioned excellently. MYSA,
NPA, CHRISC and EMIMA managed to create a very positive cooperation in which
every challenge was tackled with optimism and competence. And this year we were
also fortunate to have the presence of Norwegian volunteers who also
contributed greatly to the success.
The
media were present throughout the whole tournament. There was a daily press
conference – and we monitored the output of the various media. Through this
monitoring we were pleased to see that we did have exposure. However, we do see
that we could improve on this for next years tournament.
All in all,
the tournament was a very positive experience for the youth that participated
and the leaders organizing the event. As a pilot tournament it was a big
success, and we acquired valuable experience to build on for the future. We are
optimistic and believe that the first step has been taken to create a
tournament in East Africa that will be a huge inspiration for youth both in
East Africa and Norway. Furthermore we see that this is an excellent arena for
education through sports and that it will contribute very strongly to
maintaining long-lasting friendships between youth all over East Africa and Norway.
Organizations in charge of the tournament
KRIK
– Kristen Idrettskontakt (Norway) and Stromme Foundation (Norway).
Norsk
Folkehjelp - Norwegian People’s Aid (Norway and Tanzania)
EMIMA
–Tanzania
CHRISC
(Christian Sports Contact) in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania
MYSA
– Mathare Youth Sport Association, Nairobi, Kenya
Funding sources
Fredskorpset
– Norway
The
Norwegian Embassy of Dar es Salaam
Atleten
Sports shop, Bergen
KRIK
Norway
On behalf of
the organisers,
Svein
Olsen Haavard Nygjerde
Norwegian People’s Aid International
Project Leader KRIK
