Event: Africa Zone Series
Date: 12th November 2023
Venue: Legends Grounds, Kampala
Uganda’s American Football team will host their Kenyan counterparts on 12th November for the first leg of the 2023 Africa Zone Series. The event will be played at Legends Grounds in Kampala. The return leg will be held on 12th December in Nairobi.
This will be second major competitive and full contact event to be hosted by the American Football Federation of Uganda (AFFU) with the inaugural one happening last year in November and it was still the Africa Zone Series.
Playing at home (Legends) for the first time, Uganda’s team last year fell to Kenya off a 0-6 defeat. Kenya running back George Alwanga was the only player to touch down in a game that had a fair attendance.
With Uganda hosting the event for a second time in a spell of one year, the American Football Federation of Uganda (AFFU) has promised a much improved event in terms of team performance and the fans’ experience.
“The event has to be very serious and attendance has to be massive,” AFFU President Steven George Okeng said adding that; “preparations are okay, we are doing things behind the scenes but of course we need more money to execute all the plans.”
For the team, Okeng says that the side will be in good shape when the event kicks off as they would have had enough and adequate drills by then. For the fans, they will be engaged throughout the event with entertainment and the like.
The overall winner of the event after two legs will qualify for next year’s World Championships that will be played in Finland. Okeng is positives that the Ugandan charges will put in a good shift and make it to the global meet.
For AFFU, hosting the event once again is a huge milestone for them as they intend to create more awareness about the game.
The Africa Zone series is an American Football championship that started five years and Uganda is hosting one of the events for the second time.
After the Africa Zone Series, AFFU wants to ‘keep the fire burning’ by forming teams that comprise of players across the country and there after start a league.
