Tanzania: Dar es Salaam Women Tourney, a Wake Up Call for Regions

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

19 March 2011

The Dar es Salaam Women’s Soccer Competition for clubs is providing pure excitement for fans, I got an opportunity to watch a couple of matches pitting various teams and came out entertained.

The way teams battle it out on the pitch shows how their respective club leaders have laboured to groom gifted players to a state where we are all enjoying.

However, I have been prompted to write this article today because of two major things: One, I haven’t heard from the Women’s Football Federation urging other regions to emulate what Dar es Salaam women clubs are doing and two, other regions are not making any efforts to organise such competitions.

The national women football body should strive to ensure that other regions also stage such competitions. This can be possible by using the following approach: pay frequent visits to other cities apart from Dar-es-Salaam, like Arusha, Mwanza and Mbeya and encourage them to start club competitions.

These cities are also advantaged owing to having a huge number of dwellers, thus rendering it possible to have many institutions that can form women clubs.

In same areas, there are ‘retired’ football leaders, who if approached, they can be willing to get involved in the establishment of the clubs as well as the competitions.Therefore, what is at stake now is for the national women’s football leaders to pay visits to theses areas, I am confident that people will come forward to support them.

If the women teams are formed in these three big cities, it will be a catalyst for other late adopting regions to form their own women’s football teams and eventually take part in the National Club Championship.

The national body can as well look for sponsors to support these regional teams, as it is being done for the men’s championships.If at present we witness women sponsoring Premier League teams like African Lyon Football Club, then such tycoons in collaboration with other football enthusiasts can be ready to support women.

I would also like to advice the women’s soccer controlling body to approach beverage companies such as PEPSI to sponsor competitions like ‘Copa Pepsi Women’s Soccer Championship’ where regional youth teams can compete. In men’s soccer, lots of talents are unearthed from the coveted Copa Coca-Cola Championship, which takes place annually in all regions.

My advice for the regional football leaders (I am not sure if we have strong regional women’s football leaders) is that they should start taking women’s soccer development as a matter of urgency and form clubs. They can as well form nucleus teams during UMISHUMTA and UMISETA competitions, which start at district and regional levels to promote football.

NMB is playing a key role towards this goal by supplying football balls for the youth and organising coaching clinics, where in most cases, primary and secondary school teachers are the main beneficiaries since they can be easily organised. We can take women football ticking, let us do it now.

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