Kigali, 15 November 2015
President Kagame today attended the CAF African Nations Championships (CHAN) official drawing ceremony held in Kigali. The month long football tournament will take place from January 16 next year until February 7 in Rwanda.
Welcoming all the guests to Rwanda, President Kagame promised African football lovers a great CHAN championship.
“Rwanda is honoured to host the next African Nations Championship. We are going to have a great championship. Sport is a teacher of values. Focus, sacrifice, humility, teamwork, honesty. Champions work hard, and they don’t give up. But champions also have a big heart. Wherever we’re from, whatever is going on around us, when there’s a big competition on, we stop what we’re doing, and we watch, together. Football belongs to everybody equally. Its rules and values are universal. That is why the players, and everyone else involved, are expected to be role models, of excellence and sportsmanship. Let’s give the fans what they expect and deserve.”
The Vice President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Almamy Kabele, who represented the CAF President and FIFA acting President Issa Hayatou said that there was no doubt that CHAN 2016 would be a success, a true African football fete.
Rwanda is pooled in Group A alongside Gabon, Morocco and Ivory Coast. CHAN is designed for locally based African footballers playing in their domestic leagues.