On Monday November 2nd in Bujumbura during a press conference that marked with the signing of a sponsorship contract between the Burundi Football Federation and a telecom operator Lumitel, the telecom giants announced 100 million sponsorship deal for the Intamba Murugamba for the upcoming home and away match against Mauritania late this year.
“Signing of the 100 million FBU sponsorship contract between Lumitel Burundi and the Burundi Football Federation to support the national team Intamba Murugamba in the preparations of the round-robin matches against Mauritania for the qualifiers of AFCON 2021.” Statement read.
The Burundi telecom giants Lumitel annually contributes 140 million Burundi francs to the Burundi Football Federation in efforts to promote the game in the country.
The president of the Burundi Football Federation Reverien Ndikuriyo appointed Jimmy Ndayizeye as the National Team coach for the clash against Mauritania, while Alain Olivier Niyungeko, Joslin Bipfubusa and Julaine Haruna being named as assistant coaches.
Intamba is yet to gain a single point after two games with its last visit in Bangui (Benin) losing to Benin by 2-0 on November 13th.2019, currently Burundi rocks the bottom of Group E with Morocco, Mauritania and Central African Republic leading respectively.
CAF had earlier this year suspended the AFCON qualifiers match due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has rocked the continent for almost ten months now.
The 2021 AFCON is the 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations the biennial international men’s football championship of Africa organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The tournament is expected to be hosted in Cameroon, AFCON was originally scheduled to kick-off in June-July 2021 but CAF rescheduled it for January 2020 due to unfavorable climate conditions.
However in June 2020 CAF postponed the tournament for the third time to January 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to more than one million people losing their lives worldwide.