Tenga: Let’s use Dar Fifa meet to develop Tanzanian football

Dar es Salaam. Renowned Tanzania football administrator Leodgar Tenga says that Tanzania has been given top honors to host for the first time the Executive Summit of the world soccer governing body (Fifa).

In the event, Tenga counseled, soccer administrators and other stakeholders should take full advantage of the opportunity to develop ‘Tanzanian football,’ the world’s most popular spectator game.

The Fifa meeting is scheduled to take place at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam today, and features 70 delegates from 20 countries across the world.

The president of Fifa – the Swiss-Italian Giovanni Vincenzo ‘Gianni’ Infantino (48) – and the president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar will attend the meeting.

Tenga, who is a member of the Caf executive committee – and is also chairman of the National Sports Council of Tanzania (NSC) –, said that, although there are dozens of countries in Africa which are Fifa members, Fifa nonetheless chose Tanzania to host the meeting, which mostly focuses the development of the game.

The former president of the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) said Fifa is a development-oriented entity and, as such, wants to see its member countries attain the highest-possible development of the game every which way at all levels.To that end, the Federation has set aside $1 million for soccer development internationally.

“Since Infantino took over the Fifa Presidency (to which he was elected during the 2016 Fifa Extraordinary Congress on 26 February 2016) he has increased the development fund four times, from $250, 000 to $1 million under Federation’s ‘Forward Programme,” Tenga revealed.

By way of elaboration, he said “this means that football associations who are Fifa members can use the funds for (soccer-related) infrastructure development, as well as organizational and technical projects such as training coaches, referees, sports administrators. All that’s required is for member associations to submit and justify proposals so as to qualify for disbursement of the fund.”

Noting that “Infantino supports accountable leaders – an area that our President, Dr John Magufuli, also seriously focuses upon” – Tenga stressed that “Tanzanians ought to feel proud of the Fifa decision to choose Tanzania for its crucial meeting this time.

“It is also commendable that the government of Tanzania – working through its minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Prof Harrison Mwakyembe – was fully involved in the preparations for the meeting, thereby facilitating it to take place as planned. For all that, I heartily thank Minister Mwakyembe for the effort,” Tenga gushed enthusiastically.

Tenga said the presence of the Fifa president at the meeting in Dar es Salaam is to enable him and his mission to talk to the Federation’s members (the ‘Consultative Approach’) as a group, and also as individual national associations. This will focus on educating and familiarizing members to the International Federation’s soccer development program, as well as consult with each other and get feedback from the members.

“It is an undisputed fact that each country has its own specific problem(s), so all the members attending the meeting will be given an opportunity to spill it out. Fifa will listen to them, and propose solutions on what they can do to achieve success. So, TFF – which will be represented at the meeting by three officials – is expected to speak out, if only as the host,” he said.

Noting that Caf President Ahmad Ahmad will be at the meeting, Tenga said this will be a good chance for Tanzania to unfold its plans regarding football development in general.

Caf did organize a Football Symposium in Morocco, and gave room to its member associations to discuss a myriad football matters focusing on soccer development, including a revised Caf calendar, financial discipline and competition structure.

“So far, Caf has done a lot of things for football development on the African continent, as well as in member countries,” Tenga said, stressing that “we must be proud of the Ahmad Ahmad regime on continental football. He indeed does focus on good governance – much like Fifa’sInfantino and Tanzania’s President Magufuli,” Tenga ended on a high note.