Ex-TFF leaders join the fray

Dar es Salaam. Two more aspirants have collected nomination forms to challenge Jamal Malinzi for the top post in the forthcoming Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) general election.

The candidates are former TFF secretary general Frederick Mwakalebela and ex-vice president Athuman Nyamlani, who collected the forms yesterday ahead of the polls set for August 12 in Dodoma.

This brings to four the number of the aspirants challenging Malnzi for the top post in the country’s football governing body.

Also on the list are incumbent TFF vice president Wallace Karia and former Young African chairman Imani Madega.

Malinzi, who is seeking reelection in the August 12 polls, was the first candidate to pick the nomination forms last week.

Nyamlani, once a leader of both Temeke District Football Association (TEFA) and Dar es Salaam Regional Football Association (DRFA), expressed optimism yesterday that he would emerge the new TFF boss in the eagerly awaited election.

Mwakalebela also said that he would turn around the country’s football fortunes if elected.

Other prominent football stakeholders contesting the election include Mulamu Nghambi, Michael Wambura and Geofrey “Kaburu” Nyange, who eye the TFF presidency.

They are among those who picked forms hours after the exercise was officially opened.

The exercise to pick and return nomination forms started on Friday and incumbent TFF president Malinzi was the first to pick nomination forms at the federation headquarter at Karume in Dar es Salaam.

A few hours later, Madega turned out at the TFF offices to collect forms, eying the top post in the federation.

Tomorrow is the deadline for candidates to collect nomination forms, according to the TFF.

Screening of the candidates eyeing various posts in the TFF will be conducted between June 21 and 23, while the final list of the candidates would be released on August 5.

Few things unite the country better than football, a fact evidenced by Tanzania’s historic qualification for the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations in Nigeria.

As such the hundreds of individuals contesting the polls must comprehend the magnitude of the game and its significance to over 45 million Tanzanians.

It would be proper to have an election season driven by issues, and not sentiment for the game, which deserve to be discussed and analysed in such a perspective.

Issues like grassroots projects, youth football, women’s football, the organisation of the league, the commercial aspect of the game and others should be fronted prominently because they are at the heart of the game of football that stirs passions and emotions of millions.