How Yanga and Simba are losing their tradition

No doubt Simba and Yanga are among the oldest teams in East Africa and the whole continent as they celebrate their 79th and 80th anniversary respectively; frankly speaking the two teams deserve respect for clinging to the top of the Tanganyika and later Tanzania football rankings that long.

One minute of silence to the founders of these two famous clubs who spent their time and calories to lay a good foundation of the game in these clubs.

I hope this is the best time to recall the historical background of these giants of Tanzania football tracing back the good and bad moments they have gone through searching for fame, popularity, development and finally success technically and administratively.

It will be unfair to cherish by all means the current outlook of the Simba and Yanga composition and development without making a comparison with the past.

Let us refer back to the era between 1960s to 1980s when these two teams under the management of the true patriots of the clubs like Tabu Mangara, Shirazi Sharif, Mshindo Mkeyenge, Kiluvia and later Alhaji Juma Shamte on the Yanga side and Simba had leaders like Mussa Alibabu, Mikidadi Kassanda and later Ismail Kaminambeho to mention but a few. They managed to organise, coordinate and sensitize donors, members and fans to contribute and build club headquarters on Jangwani and Twiga streets and Msimbazi Street for Yanga and Simba respectively.

The clubs’ buldings were built when many of the current leaders were not yet born, but they find it difficult to sustain the efforts made by their predecessors and founder members by repainting and beautifying the buldings that look like deserted houses now. The truth is that the current leaders are failing to sustain efforts made by past leaders inspite of their education and wealth because they are unfocused.They cannot build on the foundation laid by the past leaderships.

The elders convinced the first President of Zanzibar, the late Mzee Karume to spearhead their efforts and supported them by building Yanga and Simba headquarters which were inaugurated the early 1970s.

Proper use of resources mostly by fans enabled Yanga to start building their training ground within their premises by collecting money from everyone who went to watch the team’s training under Prof Victor Stanslescu who was moulding the senior team that comprised most of the superstars of that time. These were Maulidi Dilunga, Abdurahman Juma, Kitwana Manara, Gibson Sembuli, Jellah Mtagwa, Leodgar Tenga, among others, and the kids squad that had people like Mohamed Rishad Adolf, Juma Pondamali Mensah, Mohamed Yahaya Tostao, Sidi Sululu, Kassim Manara, Jaffar Abdulrahman, Gordian Mapango and Mohamed Mkweche to mention but a few.

Today, about 45 years since then there is nothing going on at Kaunda stadium apart from ponds in which frogs seem to be enjoying their time, catfish, pythons and snails which can spread bilharziasis thus making the surrounding environment risky hazardous players and other members of the club. Surprisingly however, the same people who have proved failures are always the highlights in most of the local news papers boasting of spending millions of shillings buying controversial unprofessional players like Okwi and others of the sort.

In the past Yanga and Simba had 10 priorities

• A sound youth programme

• No professional players

• Very strong sides comprising patriotic players

• Patriotic leaders

• Focused and purposeful programmes

• Innovative leadership

• Devoted and patriotic fans

• Cultivating the attitude of constructive competition

• Proper use of clubs’ resources

• Inspiration from inside and outside the continent by inviting teams from England, Brazil, Romania, Russia etc.

• Serious pre- season preparations by sending their teams to Europe and South America.

The current Yanga and Simba have these deficiencies

• No sound and proper youth programmes

• No sense of responsibility and control

• Misuse of clubs’ platforms eg. in Simba everyone is a spokesman

• Under use of club resources by not using their fans to contribute for club development.

• Unfocused leadership

• Lack of sustainability in most of their programmes, eg the stadium project at Jangwani and Bunju.

• No division of labour and responsibility and the hierarchy is not observed eg, at Simba sports club it is even worse

• Foreignmania, depending too much on foreign players.

• Giving less attention to local players.

• Lack of teams psychologists and councillors to help local players develop their mental strength.

All these factors have direct connection with the growth of the game in the country in conjunction with TFF’s development plan focusing on short, medium and long-term plan.

Efforts are being taken by TFF but I am afraid the struggle may not pay dividends if these two clubs Yanga and Simba, will not give enough playing time to local players.

The Okwi, Kiiza, Tambwe and Ngoma song cannot build our football. We are not trying to discriminate the players, but it is a naked truth that efforts are needed to build confidence in local players.

Our clubs did very well on the international stage between the 1970s and 1990s without a single professional player contrary to what we are experiencing now. In those days it was Tanzania that had players playing professional football abroad with Sunday Manara playing for Heracles, a first division club in Holland, Kassim Manara played in Australia, Mohamed Yahaya Tostao and Mohamed Rishad Adolph both playing in Australia, Nicodemus Njohole, played in Europe while a bunch of Simba’s golden generation of Khalid Abeid, Shaaban Baraza, Aluu Ally, Kaungu and Kibonye turned professional in Abu Dhabi and Oman respectively.

Tanzania today has turned into a garbage bin of rejected footballers of low quality from all over the world including Brazil to prove people’s curiosity of seeing a Brazilian player seeking a professional career in Tanzania.

Sports lovers want to see changes not football fanatism oriented leaders boasting of having spent many years in the club without recording any achievements to be proud of except show-off as nobody looks interested in building on the foundation laid by their predecessors.

Pull up your socks.

Ally Mtumwa is a former Taifa stars striker, CAF A licence coach and TFF coaches instructor.Rollingstone football academy Director and president for East and Central Africa youth football academies