Three Taifa Stars players yet to join residential camp

Dar es Salaam. Three players featuring in the Egyptian Premier Football League are yet to report in the national soccer team (Taifa Stars) residential camp at the White Sands Hotel in the city.

The players are Shiza Kichuya who plays for Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries Sporting Club (ENPPI), Himid Mao of Petrojet and Yahya Zayd who plays for Ismaily.

Taifa Stars team manager Danny Msangi said the players are still in their league assignments as only one match is left.

Ismaily and Petrojet have each one match left while ENPPI have completed their league assignments.

Msangi said the players are scheduled to join the team’s camp before the departure for Egypt on June 7. He said Lipuli FC and Azam FC players will join the team tomorrow.

“Basically, most of the players are in the country ready for the Taifa Stars training camp. We will start training tomorrow (today) at the National Stadium,” said Msangi.

He said due to the fact that the players have finished their match assignments, TFF does not incur any transport cost to Tanzania from their destination.

Stars will compete in the Afcon finals for the first time since the 1980 finals, which were held in Lagos, Nigeria.

He said, on June 7, the team will start a residential camp in Cairo and according to rules and regulations, the TFF should facilitate the camp until June 18 when the African Football governing body (Caf) takes over.

Before the tournament gets underway, Taifa Stars will play Egypt and Zimbabwe in friendlies.

Stars are in group C together with the Atlas Lions of Algeria and Kenya’s Harambee Stars and will launch their campaign against Senegal on June 23.

Stars will then play Kenya on June 27 at the June 30th Stadium in Cairo. On the same day, Senegal will play Algeria.

Tanzania’s final group Stage will be on July 1, hosting Algeria from 7 pm while Kenya will be playing Senegal at the same time.