Biashara FC kick off CAF campaign

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Mainland’s representatives in the African Confederation Cup, Biashara Mara United, play their first card in the tournament today against Dikhil FC of Djibouti.

The match is scheduled to start at 6pm, and Biashara Mara say they expect to come out with positive results - meaning victory. Speaking yesterday, the Biashara Mara United team manager, Frank Wabare, said that despite the fact that they arrived late in Djibouti for unavoidable reasons, the players’ morale is very high, and they are ready to play. Wabare said they received travelling visas from Djibouti authorities late, thus putting them under pressure after failing to travel as they had planned.

“We were in panic as, till 2pm (yesterday), we had not been granted visas. We took steps to inform the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and the African football governing body Caf over the matter,” he said.

“We thank God that we finally albeit belatedly received the visas 30, and departed aboard Ethiopian Airlines. We also thank the authorities for their support, as we could have missed the match,” said Wabare - stressing that his players are ready for the encounter.

“We are in a ‘war’ - and our players know that,” he said.

For his part, TFF’s representative Aaaron Nyanda said the team is expected to arrive in Djibouti nine hours before the encounter. He revealed that TFF “fought hard to make sure that the match does indeed take place as scheduled, despite the challenges the Tanzanian team faced on the issue of visas. Apart from Biashara Mara United, other teams that are featuring in the African continental club championships are Simba and Yanga (in the African Champions League), and Azam FC in the Confederation Cup.