2006 CECAFA Cup
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Ethiopia |
| Dates | 25 November – 10 December |
| Teams | 11 (from 2 sub-confederations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Sudan (2nd title)
|
| Runners-up |  Zambia |
| Third place |  Rwanda |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 23 |
| Goals scored | 48 (2.09 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Geoffrey Sserunkuma (3) |
The 2006 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, sometimes called the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup due to being sponsored by Ethiopian millionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, was the 30th edition of the international football tournament, which involved teams from Southern and Central Africa. The matches were all played in Addis Ababa from 25 November to 10 December. It was competed between the same teams as the previous tournament, except for Eritrea, who did not enter due to their long-running clash with Ethiopia regarding borders, and Kenya, the five-time champions, were serving a ban which was issued on 18 October 2006, which was then an indefinite from international football by the decree of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association ('International Federation of Association Football'), or FIFA; this after Kenya "regularly violated or ignored" "Fifa's statutes, regulations and decisions".Malawi and Zambia joined the tournament after being invited, and competed as guest teams as they were from the federation Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), whereas the rest of the teams were from the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA). The reasoning behind their invitation was that it would "boost the competitiveness of this year's tournament". The defending champions, Ethiopia, were knocked out in the quarter-finals after coming second in their group, and Sudan claimed their second title despite being beaten by Zambia, as Zambia were guests.
The CECAFA Cup is considered Africa's oldest football tournament, and involves teams from Central and Southern Africa. The matches in the 1973 tournament were played from 22 September 1973 until 29 September 1973. The tournament was originally the Gossage Cup, contested by the four nations of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika (modern day Tanzania), and Zanzibar, running from 1929 until 1965. In 1967, this became the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup, often shortened to simply the Challenge Cup, which was competed for five years, until 1971, before the CECAFA Cup was introduced in 1973. Ethiopia were the defending champions, having won the 2005 tournament in Rwanda, after finishing second in their group, and going on to beat Zanzibar and Rwanda in the final. The 2006 champions Sudan failed, however, to emerge from the 2005 group stages.
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