Stars to camp in Egypt for Afcon
Dar es Salaam. The National soccer team, Taifa Stars, will camp in Egypt ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals to be held in Egypt from June 21 to July 19.
The team will assemble on June 2, 2019 in Dar es Salaam before leaving the country one week later for Cairo, according to assistant head coach Hemed “Morocco” Suleiman.
Morocco said the Dar es Salaam camp will be for screening players to 23 as per the African Football governing body (Caf) rules and regulations.
Already the team’s technical bench has announced 39 provisional players ahead of the competition. He said they have made a request to play at least three international friendlies before starting the competition.
“We have secured only one international friendly match. We will play against Egypt on June 13 at the Borg al Arab Stadium. Other matches would be unveiled by the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF),” said Morocco.
However, TFF technical director Ammy Ninje said they have requested Nigeria, Ghana and Burundi to play against Taifa Stars.
The quartet has also qualified for the Afcon finals. Being the host, Egypt has been drawn in Group A while Nigeria and Burundi are in Group B and Ghana in Group F.
According to Morocco, their plan is to play as many international matches as possible before competing in the Afcon finals.
Taifa Stars are in Group C along with neighbours Kenya, Senegal and Algeria. The team will launch their Afcon campaign against Senegal on June 23, before facing Kenya’s Harambee Stars four days later. They will wind up their group stage campaign on July 1 against Algeria.
He said their target is to do wonders in the competition that will see other 23 nations competing for the continental honours. Tanzania’s last qualification for the Afcon finals was in 1980 in Lagos, Nigeria.
