AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB), yesterday set next month as the period when the league could possibly resume depending on the recommendation by the government regarding the threat of Covid-19 pandemic.
This was said by the TPLB Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Almas Kasongo while giving reaction to the board’s management committee emergency meeting which was convened over the weekend in Dar es Salaam by its Chairman, Stephen Mguto.
“We had a fruitful meeting and managed to come up with two resolutions which are to recommence the league only when the government will declare it safe to do so and that upon its resumption, the old system of playing home and away matches will be applied,” he said.
However, queried to mention the timeframe as to when the action will return on the battlefield, Kasongo replied that possibly early next month.
“As for now, we are in the process to write a proposal which will be shared with the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and the Ministry for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports on how we can safely restart the league.
“Our focus is to ensure that when the games return, we should be able to give people quality football they have missed for at least two months,” the CEO said.
He also disclosed that TPLB has already started implementing the suggestion of President John Magufuli who recently reiterated that he is just waiting for his advisors to brief him on a possible resumption of the league.
“Let me take this opportunity to laud him (Magufuli) for showing his interest to bring back the game because sports help a lot to build people’s health and thereby remain resilient to diseases,” remarked Kasongo.
He also maintained his stand that upon the restart of the league, all remaining fixtures will unfold behind closed doors as one of the resolutions made by TPLB during their first meeting on March 18th this year.
“We will ensure that players, referees, technical bench members, leaders and few reporters who will get access into the stadium are thoroughly tested to curb further spread of the Covid-19.
“In the Mainland Premier League, there are 98 matches to be played while in the First Division League (FDL), we have 48 games on the cards and again in the Second Division League (SDL), there is one more round to go of 10 matches, which will also involve six playoffs before getting the teams to be promoted,” he narrated.
On Sunday President Magufuli said in Chato, Geita that he was planning to let the league resume soon while insisting sports play a big role in combating diseases.
“I am planning to let the league resume in the near future so that people can start playing and be watched on Television such that we just need to put in place good measures to facilitate that”.
“So far, I have not heard of any sports person being affected by the Coronavirus meaning that those who embrace sport activities are not easily attacked by the Covid-19 as such, if we ban them from partaking in sports, by implication, we want them to suffer from the Covid-19 disease,” Magufuli said.
Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), suspended the Mainland Premier League, among other competitions, in mid-March when the government banned public gatherings.
The head of state went on to urge the citizens not to panic and also stated he will not put the major towns, including Dar es Salaam, under total lockdown as some leaders have insistently asked him to do so.
