Tanzania: Vijana Stars, Kobs Match Fetches 32 Million

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

3 May 2011

THE return leg match of the All Africa Games qualifiers between the national U-23 soccer team, Vijana Stars and Uganda Kobs played at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam last Saturday, has fetched 32,982,000/-.

The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer, Boniface Wambura, said the amount was obtained from a total of 24,078 fans who paid entrance fees to watch the match.

He said a total of 22,117 fans purchased the lowest charged tickets, each sold at 1,000/-, and 1,749 fans paid 5,000/- each, while the other 212 paid 10,000/ each to watch the match at the 60,000-seater capacity venue.

Wambura said after setting aside the 18 per cent of the Value Added Tax (VAT), which is 5,031,152.54 /- and the earlier match expenses calculated at 16,950,000/-, TFF received 8,250,635.59/-.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Dar es Salaam Regional Football Association (DRFA) got 550,042.37/- and 412,531.78/- respectively, while the stadium’s management claimed 1,100,084.75/- from the collection.

The Vijana Stars saw their dream to feature in the next edition of the All Africa Games go up in smoke after they crashed to a 3-1 defeat to Uganda in the second leg match.

The Kobs progressed to the next stage by 5-2 goals aggregate victory, after securing 2-1 win in the first leg match played at Namboole (Mandela) Stadium in Kampala a fortnight ago.

Vijana Stars needed a 1-0 win to knock their opponents out of the qualifiers but the failure to fully utilize home ground advantage eventually foiled their attempt to command yet another successful spell at the international level.

Tanzania’s national women team, Twiga Stars, in contrast, has qualified for the All Africa Games’ finals scheduled for September in Maputo, Mozambique after their opponents, Uganda, Kenya and Sudan, pulled out of the qualifiers.

The 2012 Olympic Games remains the only target for Vijana Stars. They have been drawn against Nigeria in the second round of the Olympic qualifiers.

They ousted the winners of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games men’s football title, Cameroun, 4-3 on penalty after a 3-3 aggregate score-line, but after last weekend’s show against Uganda it is definitely that nothing short of a heroic performance would see Jamhuri Kihwelo’s side prevail against the 1996 Olympic gold medalists Nigeria.

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