AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has called for patience as they continue to trace people who were involved in the misuse of funds meant for 2019 U-17 AFCON tournament.
This was revealed yesterday via a telephone interview by the Bureau’s Director John Mbungo who insisted that they have already collected necessary documents required in their investigations.
“At the moment, the public should be calm as we keenly undertake our responsibilities and should avoid listening from other people about the issue since it is still ongoing.
“We will interrogate anyone from the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) until we get those who were really involved in the malpractice.
“We must know how it was used bearing in mind that president Magufuli insisted on the day he donated the amount (1bn/-) that it should be used properly and that any misuse will lead those involved to vomit it. I think this is the right time for the money to be vomited,” Mbungo said.
However, TFF president Wallace Karia said he has wholeheartedly welcomed the PCCB decision to investigate on the matter saying it will help to set them free.
“A lot is being said about this issue and the federation will provide necessary cooperation to them (PCCB),” he said while insisting that no external amount was deposited into the federation’s account for the running of last year’s Africa Youth Championship (AYC).
Tanzania successfully hosted the competition in Dar es Salaam which saw the country’s representatives (Serengeti Boys) performing poorly as they finished last in their group A category without winning any match after three games.
They lost 5-4 to Nigeria, 3-0 to Uganda and another 4-2 setback from Angola hence missing the chance to clinch the title for the first time in their history.
However, Cameroon, who were packed in group B together with Senegal, Morocco and Guinea won the title for the second time in their history.
Four teams of the tournament which are Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon and Senegal qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil as the CAF representatives.
Angola and Nigeria qualified for finishing third and fourth in the competition respectively. Then defending champions Mali failed to qualify.
Following completion of the tournament, CAF ejected Guinea from the competition, and deleted its results from the records, for fielding players with passports which had a different date of birth to those the players had used in the U-16 age restricted ‘International Dream Cup’ in Japan.
Senegal were given the remaining place at the U-17 World Cup as they had placed behind Guinea during the group stage.
