[9][10][11][12] However, in August 2012, CECAFA General Secretary Nicholas Musonye stated that it would be moved to Uganda after a request from the tournament sponsors, East African Breweries.

However, CECAFA Secretary General Nicholas Musonye decided to move the remaining group games from the Namboole Stadium since it had been in bad shape due to heavy rains.

It was confirmed that on Saturday, 1 December, Somalia would play Tanzania at the Lugogo Stadium at 14:00 UTC+3 while Eritrea would take on Rwanda at the same venue two hours later.

[16][17][18] Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe had all expressed interest in participating in the tournament.

[1][19] Botswana's interest to join had eventually "fallen off",[20] while Cameroon were not considered as they wanted to send their under-23 team.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) rules do not allow teams to compete in another competition within a two-month period of the Africa Cup of Nations.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):