Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA Chairman of the Board Mohammed Dewji ‘Mo’ yesterday deposited 20bn/- to Simba Sports Club Endowment Fund signalling the completion of club transformation works which have been going on for a while.
He presented the dummy cheque to Simba chairman Murtaza Mangungu and other leaders who turned up at his press conference held in the city where he thanked all those involved in the entire club transformation procedures.
“I am glad to let you know that the Fair Competition Committee (FCC) has finally assured us that transformation processes we have been doing for nearly four years now, hence depositing 20bn/- is a proof for that.
“It was a very cumbersome process because we are the first team in the whole East and Central Africa to embrace club transformation that is why we encountered several challenges on the way. “But, at last, everything is over now that is why I am going to deposit 20bn/- as I promised. There are minor things remaining for us to accomplish as required by FCC which account to only 3 percent of them,” Mo said.
He added that to reach this level, it could have been impossible if there was no unity and cooperation among members and fans of the club a thing he said is a secret for Simba prosperity.
“For the past four years, Simba has been operating freely without entertaining conflicts and this is what drives us to achieve more success both within and off the pitch. “This does not mean that we do not disagree on other issues but in such circumstances, we always put first interest of the club before our interests and in the end, we come up with good solutions,” he said.
According to him, for the past four years, Simba have consumed 21.3bn/- used to pay monthly salaries for players, coaches and other workers plus paying for bonuses and transport costs of the team.
“As such, I have been paying at least 5.3bn/- per year in the elapsed four years and all these are additional money I pay to search success of our team but still, some people used to say that I had no money just because of the 20bn/- I did not deposit,” said Mo.
He further narrated that the Msimbazi Street Reds have played a very important role to put the country’s league on the map due to their good performance they display in major competitions both domestic and international ones.
“We plan to increase revenue of our club in order to be able to compete with giant teams like Al Ahly who are able to sign players ranging from 1m/dollar to 2m/-dollar a thing which is easy for them because of the big budget they have,” he said.
He went on: “We want to continue winning and defending titles. Reaching in the quarterfinals of CAF Champions League should no longer be our target but we need to start thinking of lifting the Champions League title. I will not stop until one day we win the champions league throne,” He then requested Simba leaders to run the club in a transparent way while insisting that nobody including himself is bigger than the club saying they found Simba and they will leave it.
“We are all serving for this club and one day, we will die leaving the club behind as such, let us do whatever is necessary to drive this beloved team to prosperity. “There are big plans coming up to Simba which will be made public soon and ahead of the upcoming season, we are going to make major signings to simply strength further our team,” Mo disclosed.
