Kafuae Celtic Football Club from Zambia debuts into East Africa Chipkizi Cup in Arusha, December 2024

By Yasinta Lukezo

Sports teams from Nigeria and Zambia will be making maiden appearances at the East African Youth Soccer Tournament whose 15^th instalment of Chipkizi Cup comes up in Arusha next December 2024.

For the first time, the Kafuae Celtic Football Club from Zambia is making an appearance at the Chipkizi Cup 2024 in Arusha. 

Kafuel Celtic competes in the Zambian Super League and is home to Patson Daka, the Zambian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Leicester City.

Organised by the Future Stars Sports Academy (FSA) of Arusha, the East Africa Chipkizi Cup 2024 has attracted over 200 Teams across Multiple Sports in Arusha.

“There is also the Didier Drogba Academy from Burundi that will also be making a scene in Tanzania next December, ” said Abel Mtweve, the Future Stars Academy Manager.

The games feature the Boys and girls events from the Under-7 to Under-20 age categories.

The Plateau United Team B’ from Nigeria, has also expressed interest to participate in the Chipkizi Cup 2024 during the forthcoming Christmas season.

This is the 15^th Edition of the East African Youth Sports Tournament that will take place in the Northern Safari City of Arusha from December 9 to 15, 2024, bringing together more than 4800 sports personnel with 200 teams from across East, Central and Southern Africa.

“The prestigious tournament will feature among other sporting events, football, basketball, and swimming competitions,” said the Future Stars Director, Alfred Itaeli.

“We are slowly shifting from being an East African sports tourney into an African event as more teams from around the continent join the annual Chipkizi Cup in Tanzania,” Itaeli maintained.

The games will be held at a number of sports arenas in the city including UWC, Agha-Khan, Saint Constantine, Tanganyika Game Trackers (TGT) grounds, and Braeburn International.

Teams from Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Burundi have confirmed their participation, ready to bring nearly 5000 people.

Among them there will be 3,000 international players expected to fly into Arusha for the games thus enhancing the tournament’s reputation as an event which has been boosting tourism in Tanzania.

The newest thing this year is the request from WY Scout, the world’s largest online scouting platform with over 33,000 agents globally, to stream live the Chipkizi Cup games and broadcast the matches worldwide.

Wyscout is the world’s leading provider of football videos, data and statistics for scouting, match and performance analysis, which means sports agents from all over the globe will be watching the games in Arusha and pick the potential youth players.

“Wyscout will provide live streaming and analysis, making this event a unique opportunity for players to be scouted by agents from Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Kenya, Uganda, and Denmark.

On his part the Secretary of Arusha Regional Football Association, Emmanuel Anthony said the East African Chipkizi Cup should soon be an ‘All African Chipkizi Cup,’ due to its remarkable growth across the continent.

“We are seeing many young players being groomed through the Future Stars, some making it to bigger international teams around the world,” said Anthony.

He said as ARFA they laud the organizers because the tournament fosters local and international sports development, while also cultivating traditional values and reinforcing regional cooperation.