The National u17 soccer team have on Wednesday started preparations for CECAFA Under-17 zonal qualification which takes place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania next month.

Speaking at the official opening of the preparation, coach Bilal Felix Komoyangi called on the nation to render its support towards the team:

“We all know what the country is going through. I am therefore appealing to the citizens to stop talking and start supporting the national team.”

The Coach also stressed the fact that the selection of the team was meant to for all the states but due to the insecurity within the country, the technical team only called players within Juba and some from Uganda and Wau.

“You Know this U17, what we expected was to select from all the states we have than bring them into competition, but you know now we have a financial constrain. So no way of bringing a lot of players”.

Bilal further says this time round him and his backroom staff will ensure they take players whose age will not affect the team during the tournament.

“The most important thing, we are based on the age limit because we can’t bring just random players like that we have to focus on the age.”

He went on to say he doesn’t want the mistake that led to nine squad members of the U20 being rejected for being over age.

“As you know last time in the Uganda match, most of our players were knocked out because of their age.”

Bilal Felix says this being a young team, its management is more complex than other national teams such as the senior team and U20 team.

A total of 38 players have been summoned into the provisional squad which will start preparation for the tournament which pits South Sudan against East Africa power houses like Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.