Tanzania: TFF Assembly Reward Taifa Stars

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

1 April 2011

THE Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) General Assembly members have awarded 1,980,000/- to the national soccer team, Taifa Stars, following the team’s 2-1 win over the Central African Republic in the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.

The money was contributed by over 100 members during the body’s annual congress held in the city between March 26 and 27. Young striker Mbwana Samata drilled home last gasp winner to give Taifa Stars’ African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification hopes a huge boost with a much-needed 2-1 victory over Group D rivals, the Central African Republic (CAR) at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam last Saturday.

Mabide Vianney stunned home supporters when he opened the scoring for the visitors with a powerful low strike barely after two minutes, but midfielder Shabaan Nditi pulled the game into level term before the breather.

Following the third round results, Taifa Stars rest in second place, behind CAR, while North African giants Morocco and Algeria are respectively third and bottom of the table. The quartet are level on four points, but they are separated based on goal difference superiority.

The next Afcon finals will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Meanwhile, the Mainland Premier League encounter between defending champions Simba and Kagera Sugar played last Tuesday at the Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam churned 20,031,355/-.

According to the statement released by Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer, Boniface Wambura the two teams received 4,918,726.78/- each from the collections. The breakdown shows that the Tanzania Revenue Authority took 18 per cent of the revenue collected, which is 3,635,600/-, as Value Added Tax (VAT) charges.

Other recipients were TFF (1,639,575/-), Uhuru Stadium management (1,639,575/- as stadium charges), National Sports Council (NSC, 163,957.56), Dar es Salaam Regional Football Association (DRFA, 655,830/-) Football Development Fund (819,787) and match costs 1,639,575/-.

Visiting Kagera Sugar checked Simba’s march towards the second back to back top flight glory after holding Patrick Phiri’s men to a frustrating goalless draw. The Msimbazi street side could have been beaten and had goalkeeper Juma Kaseja to thank for heroic penalty save, that earned them at least a point as the race for the title goes down a wire.

Leading league goal scorer Gaudence Mwaikimba saw his low spot kick parried off by Kaseja with ten minutes to go. Yanga took full advantage of the leaders’ slip-up as they beat Azam FC 2-1 the following day to move within two points of the leaders Simba.

The results placed the traditional archrivals in a two horse race, whilst Azam were effectively dismissed as title contenders. With two rounds to go, the defending champions Simba are leading the twelve-team table with 45 points, two points more than archrivals Yanga.

Thus, everything remains on the line, as neither leaders Simba nor their challengers Yanga can be certain of a comfortable end to the campaign

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