AfricaPress-Tanzania: HOOLIGANISM and its associated unsporting behaviours have rocked the country’s football scene of late, hence, there is a call for strong measures against them and people who in a way support them.
This should serve as an early wake-up call since mishandling it might soon ruin a good reputation of our now becoming popular Premier League.
Though there are a few cases of hooliganism reported this season, the incident sat at Jamhuri Stadium in Morogoro during the Premier League match between Mtibwa Sugar and Young Africans, and the previous one at Benjamin Mkapa during the Mwananchi Week finale, convince us to demand strong actions that would make our football arena safe from violence and hooliganism.
Prior to the start of this season Tanzanian football fans, though hooliganism in Tanzania football arenas, used to be a thing of the past, but the two widely reported incidents force us to think otherwise.
As shot by Azam TV, a football fan wearing a red jersey was roughed by a group of agitated fans in green and yellow clothing and some hours later Simba, through their Chief Executive Officer, Barbara Gonzales reacted strongly by condemning the acts and went on demand tough measures against the wrongdoers.
In reality these unsportsmanship acts are crimes, hence all those who have committed them must be prosecuted in courts of law for their crime and be a lesson to others.
We are serious on that as we see matches are meant to bring people together and should not act as a cause for chaos.
In European countries, a team whose fans misbehave during or after a match is fined heavily. Unfortunately, in Tanzania, when such a case happens, there are no hefty charges only to bar fans from going to the stadium for one or two matches. Then it is over.
Efforts should be made to ensure that we safely get out of this quagmire. We end up by urging our teams and players to warn their fans and supporters since their foul acts may also affect the team.
Since the government ordered the National Sports Council (NSC) and football governing body (TFF) to conduct a thorough investigation before taking strong measures, we would like to advise the two bodies to work on the issue diligently and give us an everlasting solution to the whole problem.
