EDITORIAL: May the best teams win in the caf cup berths
With just a few days to go before the final of the Azam Sports Confederation Cup comes to a close, two teams are in with a chance to clinch the title.
Mtibwa Sugar and Singida United will clash in the final of the tournament also known as FA Cup on June 2 at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium in Arusha.
The winner of the anxiously-awaited clash will join newly-crowned Mainland Premier League champions Simba in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) inter-club competitions next year. Simba, who were crowned Premier League kings a week or so ago with two matches to spare, will represent the country in the CAF Champions League.
The winner of next week’s FA Cup final will be Tanzania’s envoys in the CAF Confederation Cup. That said, it becomes worrying that there is little progress achieved by any of local teams when it comes to the CAF-organised competitions.
They become the whipping boys and bow out, in most circumstances in the first round, just after navigating the preliminary round.
Perhaps the barometer which we are using to measure the local league is skewed. We look at the names of the teams and not the talent at our disposal and whether it measures up to the competition in Africa. Referees have been known to be sympathetic to some teams in the league. This does not help those teams as they travel with a false measure of their competitiveness.
And this is worsened when some teams threaten not play when a certain referee is given their matches to handle.
It’s all wrong and gives the impression that some clubs are bigger than others yet the mantra of Fifa is Fair Play.
So, while we can be excited about the Premier League and FA Cup, let it translate to better results in Africa for two teams that take part in CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup.
