TANZANIA MUST benefit from THE Fifa summit
On Wednesday, Tanzania will be thrust on to the global football spotlight when Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, arrives for the world football governing body’s executive summit.
Infantino, one of the world’s most powerful men, will lead a high-profile delegation from Fifa.
Top officials of national football associations from around the world will attend the summit, which will be chaired by Infantino. As such, it is an opportunity for Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to learn from other countries on how best to promote the sport.
Early this week, the minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, also highlighted the importance of hosting the event on Tanzanian soil.
The summit, which is a very important event on the Fifa calendar, will embrace a full day workshop with some breakout sessions, which will be conducted in an open and casual manner. The fact that Tanzania is deemed good enough to be among the 12 countries to host the Fifa executive meetings between November 2017 and March 2018, is no mean feat.
It is another marker of our global acceptability, visibility and reckoning. Infantino and his team have been charmed by what we want to achieve and feel we are on the right track.
There is no question that we have talent in this country. That Mbwana Samata rose from a little known player to be voted the best footballer in Africa in 2016, for players plying their trades on the continent, is testimony to that.
What we have been lacking is a coordinated programme that would ensure that sports academies can be established, running under expert supervision.
We believe that meeting presents TFF an excellent opportunity to brief the Fifa boss of the challenges they are facing, and try and find ways of how the Zurich-based organisation, which is awash with money, can help them.
