EDITORIAL: Let us be serious to play at Afcon finals

Gabon is agog with the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals. The football tournament features 16 teams which fought hard to qualify for the event which is staged after every two years as per regulations of the African football governing body (Caf).

The continent’s soccer fans will enjoy watching the matches that will also involve African stars featuring in global football leagues.

Uganda is the only country in East and Central Africa in the tournament which will also attract famous football talent scouts, agents and coaches who look for the best players to feature in European leagues.

The only thing that Tanzania will be proud of in the event is  the inclusion of Bongo flava artist Naseeb Abdul Juma  a.k.a.  Diamond Platnumz who will perform at opening ceremony. Tanzania has been struggling to qualify for Afcon finals for 37 years now.

It is understood that Afcon is the main international association football competition in Africa.

Tanzania last time qualified for the competition in 1980 and since then,  football lovers have been turned to other countries.

However, the inclusion of Diamond in the opening ceremony of the Afcon finals will impress Tanzanians.

This should be taken as a challenge for Tanzania’s football governing body and its stakeholders to prepare good soccer development plans to enable their team to compete in the finals.

Tanzania can perform well in the qualifying tournament if a strong foundation in football is built.

A case in point is the recent National U-17 soccer team, Serengeti Boys, which featured in the finals of the qualifying matches and was eliminated by Congo Brazzaville which is alleged to field overaged players. Let’s be serious in football to excel in the field just  like Diamond  has done in music.