Takeover of Simba in sight

Dar es Salaam. Simba SC members have given the nod to the managerial restructuring plan of the club, a move that clears the way for the city magnate, Mohammed Dewji, to buy over half of stake.

In a tension-packed general meeting attended by over 700 members at the Police Officer’s Mess yesterday, Simba resolved on several issues, but the sale of 51 per cent of the club’s stake stuck out.

Dewji, the former Singida Urban legislator, bade a whopping Sh20billion to buy the aforesaid stake, promising to transform the Msimbazi Street giants into a mega rich club on the continent.

Yesterday’s resolution meant that the 41-year-old businessman and the youngest billionaire in Africa will be the owner of the club by 51 per cent.

Forty nine per cent of the stake will be owned by the members.

Simba SC president Evans Aveva admitted at the meeting that the change of ownership structure was inevitable, prompting cheers from majority of the members who were backing change.

“This is an extraordinary general meeting where we are discussing important issues pertaining to the future of our club. Majority of the members here want reformation for the betterment of our club, so I declare that we will go through major reforms,” said Aveva.

Aveva’s speech marked the beginning of club’s transformation into new system of management from the current one that has failed to stabilise Simba’s financial muscles to compete in both local and international competitions.

Earlier, Aveva had told the general meeting that his management had planned to spend approximately Sh3.4bn as the club’s budget for both running the team and setting up facilities like training grounds and hostels.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow members, Musa Mnyiti urged the Simba management to start immediately the reformation of the club so that it operates in accordance with modern systems.

“Simba have not been performing well in recent years and this is down to our community style of ownership.

We have to change immediately because other successful teams don’t run their clubs this way. We have no option but to adopt the modern day ways of governing clubs,” he said.

Dewji was the sponsor of Simba between 1999 and 2004 when he bankrolled the club to the tune of Sh2.4bn.

During his time as the club sponsor, Simba managed to knock off the then-reigning CAF champions Zamalek of Egypt in 2003 to book their place in the group stages of the CAF Champions League.