TFF appoints coaches to lead women team at Cecafa meet

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has appointed Edna Lema and Hilda Masanche as assistant coaches of the Mainland’s women team.

The comes a day after the 2016 Council of East and Central African Association (Cecafa) Women Football tournament was launched in Kampala on Monday.

The tournament returns after nearly 30 years in limbo since it was last played. The launch culminated in a draw that pooled Tanzania Mainland in Group B together with Rwanda, Ethiopia. Group A comprises hosts Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Zanzibar. The latter is recognised as an independent country by Cecafa.

The Mainland side, whose official name has yet to be coined, will open their campaign in Jinja with a date against Rwanda on September 12.

TFF technical director Salum Madadi made the appointments yesterday, promising to unveil the team’s head coach today.

“The two will serve as assistant coaches and hopefully I will be in a position to announce the appointment of the team’s head coach on Wednesday (today),” said Madadi.

On the team’s name, the director said they were still going through a number of suggested names.

“There are several names suggested by football stakeholders, but we have to go through them and pick the best one,” he said.

Concerning the Mainland’s group, Madadi said it was relatively easy, but stressed that they would not underrate any team at the championship.

“It is not what they call group of death, but we have no chance of underrating our opponents. The tournament has returned after over three decades, so we hope that our teams will go all out and make us proud,” he added.

On Monday, Cecafa general secretary, Nicholas Musonye graced the press conference that launched the tournament last played in 1986.

Musonye was grateful to Fufa for taking up the initiative on such a short notice.