Former Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye wants Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to work as a team in delivering a successful 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
The veteran football administrator said key to the delivery of a world-class event is the rehabilitation/renovation of stadia.
“The most important and crucial aspect of this bid is stadia. The stadia must have all the CAF specifications,” said Musonye.
“They must also ensure they have enough and standard training facilities. CAF and Fifa have always put emphasis on players and this should guide the three nations when reworking their infrastructure.”
Musonye said the hosting rights will also test the togetherness of the three nations as they seek to deliver on the East Africa Pamoja Bid.
“They must not fall for individualism. They must work together as a team. The three governments should form a joint national organising committee to ensure that all activities are managed at a central point,” said Musonye. “In fact, the countries should realise they are one host.”
However, Musonye observed that there are elements that each nation will have to handle separately but should be open to monitoring and evaluation by the main organising committee.
The worst, he said, will be to have if one of the trio back out.
“My prayer is that none of the three countries pulls out. If this happens, we might lose the bid or burden the rest in attaining the deliverables as per Caf specifications,” he said.
Musonye said the biggest assets the countries have is accommodation, transport and telecommunication network.
“Kenya and Tanzania have abundance in terms of hotels and Uganda are not doing badly either,” said Musonye. “The only challenge is putting protocols in place and coordination of movement especially if there will be movement of players by air.”
“The three countries are flexible in the issuance of visas and, therefore, the movement of teams into and out of the region as well as local transport is out of the question,” he added.
In regard to security, Musonye said there are not too much to worry about, but; “the countries will have to tighten their borders to prevent Al Shabaab terrorist cells from taking advantage of such a big event to cause chaos.”
