The African Under-17 Championship kicks off in Kigali, Rwanda today without Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets who got to the final of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup which Nigeria hosted two years ago.

The Nigerian lads who were tutored by coach John Obuh who has graduated with the last set of Under-17 players to the Flying Eagles lost in the final to Switzerland in the final at the Abuja National Stadium.

Apart from the Golden Eaglets who will be missing from the Rwandan party, two other football power houses in the continent, Ghana and Cameroon are also not part of the eight teams on parade, five of which are from the West African sub-region.

The four teams that reach the semi_finals will qualify for the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico later this year.
Rwanda’s local organising committee (LOC) says everything is ready because they hosted the U20 championship two years ago.
“It was like winning an award for Rwanda to host this competition”, LOC head Emmanuel Bugingo told the BBC.

The hosts are taking part in the tournament for the first time but have high hopes of making it out of their group _ which includes Burkina Faso, Senegal and Egypt.

The other group comprises current title holders The Gambia, plus Congo Brazzaville, Ivory Coast and Mali.
Rwanda’s U17 coach, the Frenchman Richard Tardy, has been with the team for five months and took the side to Tunisia for a month_long pre_tournament camp.

“It’s a long time we’ve been waiting for this moment and we’re a little impatient to start”, Tardy said.
“The [players] want to put in a good performance; they want to win their first game _ my job is now to wait and not lose my nerve.”
Rwanda start their campaign with a game against Burkina Faso on 8 January.