Tacticians call on clubs to recruit best players for CAF competitions

Dar es Salaam. Football tacticians in the country have urged four clubs that will represent Tanzania in the continental club championships to focus on recruiting players, who can take the teams to the next level of the competitions.

Tanzania will field four teams in the next edition of the Continental Africa Club Championships for the 2022/2023.

Already Young Africans (Yanga) and Simba have secured the ticket to represent the country in the African Champions League while two other teams to represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup will be known at the end of this month.

Yanga have secured the chance after winning the Mainland Tanzania NBC Premier League title while Simba are the runners-up.

The winner of the Azam Federation Cup and the fourth placed team in the Mainland Premier League will represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup. So far Coastal Union can win the chance if they beat Yanga in the Azam Federation Cup final match scheduled to take place on July 2 in Arusha Region.

If Coastal Union win the title, they will join the third placed team in the Mainland League to represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup.

However, if Coastal Union lose to Yanga, then third and fourth placed teams in the Mainland Premier League will represent the country in the tournament.

Currently, Azam FC and Geita Gold FC are locking horns to finish in the third place of the league.

Azam FC have so far collected 43 points from 28 matches while Geita Gold FC are placed fourth after collecting 42 points from the same number of matches played. As per fixture, Azam FC will tomorrow face Dodoma Jiji FC at the Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma while Geita Gld FC will meet Polisi Tanzania at the Ushirika Ground in Moshi.

Famous football tactician Abdallah Kibadeni called on the clubs to focus on the players who will take the clubs to the best stage of the competitions, but not ending up in preliminaries.

Kibadeni said it will be meaningless to have many chances, but no team fare well, adding that in recent years there had been no side that qualified for the semifinals of the prestigious tournaments.

“It is a fact that Simba did a commendable job to make the country proud, but it seems that there is an obstacle in qualifying for the semifinals and finals of continental club championships.

“Simba leaders and coaches have to brainstorm as to why they end up in quarterfinals only, they need to advance to next stages,” said Kibadeni.

For his part, U-17’s Copa Coca Cola head coach, Abel Mtweve, echoed Kibadeni’s comment, saying that the clubs need to avoid recruiting players for ‘shows’ while knowing that there are huge tasks in competitions.

“Clubs have to recruit players who are committed to bringing successes. Club leaders and coaches have to scout well and not otherwise,” said Mtweve.