Africa-Press – Tanzania. AZAM FC will head to Tunisia for a pre-season camp in July. The club’s players are currently on a break after finishing third in the 2022/23 Premier League, 19 points behind champions, Yanga, and 14 points shy of first runner-up Simba SC.
They reached the Azam Sports Federation Cup final after edging out Simba SC 2-1 in the semi-final but lost 1-0 to Yanga in the final to end up trophyless for a fourth season in a row.
Overall, Azam FC played 30 games in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign, winning 18 and losing seven– to qualify for the 2023/24 CAF Confederation Cup.
Continental football and the newly-formed Community Shield Knockout Cup will add even more games to an already-packed schedule, which has seemingly motivated the club to head to Tunisia for the preparations of what seems to be a grueling upcoming campaign.
According to the club’s spokesman Hasheem Ibwe, the players will report for pre-season tomorrow and immediately undergo medical checkups before beginning training in line with the standard six weeks of pre-season preparations that teams require to be ready for the new campaign.
The club will camp in Dar es Salaam until the weekend trip to Tunisia on Sunday where the outfit’s footballers are expected to play several friendly games including one with African giants, Esperance de Tunis.
Ibwe revealed the decision behind settling for Tunisia, saying: “We are going to a country where there is a similarity in weather and perhaps a little of the landscape of the area where we come from, but it is also an environment that we are used to in the African competitions.”
“In Tunisia, there are teams like Esperance with whom we have good relations. We are going to have a friendly match with them, and they are also preparing for next season,” the official noted.
The official revealed: “It is easy to evaluate ourselves that we have lost this friendly match against Esperance, we made mistakes here and there and if we go to the CAF competition we should take this approach.”
“We believe that while we are in Tunisia, we will find many teams that are close to opponents that we will meet in the CAF Confederation Cup,” Ibwe said.
“It will also provide us with a good challenge in preparation for our domestic competitions, the Azam Sports Federation Cup and Mainland Tanzania Premier League,” Ibwe concluded.
In the 2023/24 Azam FC under head coach Youssouph Dabo will be eager to right the wrongs of the last campaign.
They want to get back to being a side with what it takes to not only compete for but win titles.
Fulfilling the motive requires Azam FC to add to the outfit’s armoury, a process already started by the arrival of midfielder Feisal Salum from city rivals, Yanga, and Gambian winger Gibril Sillah from Moroccan giants Raja Club Athletic.
The squad rebuilding has already seen Bruce Kangwa, Aziz Kader, Kenneth Muguna, Rodgers Kola, and Cleophace Mkandala depart.
The club also parted ways with assistant coaches, Kalimangonga Ongala and Aggrey Morris, Spanish goalkeeping coach Dani Cadena and fitness coach Moadh Hiraoui as part of the club’s technical bench restructuring.
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