Yanga, Simba: take club licensing seriously
In the last two weeks, news on inspection of club licensing of the country’s soccer giants--Simba and Young Africans--have dominated the sports media landscape.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) officials are expected in Tanzania anytime from now from Egypt for the mission.
This comes only a year after Caf and the world’s football governing body, Fifa, came up with new licensing requirements to streamline premier league club activities in Africa.
In the new dispensation, Premier League clubs are required to prove that they are financially stable to run their affairs throughout the season. They must also have functional secretariats run by professionals.
Clubs are also required to engage full-time coaches, with the senior coaches satisfying Caf coaching licence demands.
According to Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), the Caf inspection team coming to Tanzania has the mandate to disqualify clubs whose playing grounds lack important amenities like good pitch, toilets and changing rooms.
We, therefore, remind local clubs, Yanga and Simba in particular, to strictly observe this as the club tournaments kick off next month.
Yanga and Simba will represent Tanzania in the Caf Champions League and Confederation Cup respectively.
This means the two clubs will be required to, among other things, prove that they have proper infrastructure, and they are operated professionally with proper financial and coaching structures.
Indeed, these requirements have come at the right time. We believe that if well implemented, such rules will give the running of clubs in our league direction and a professional touch.
Some clubs are operated unprofessionally, without proper financial and coaching structures, causing suffering to both players and coaches.
