Africa-Press – Tanzania. YOUNG Africans members yesterday unanimously endorsed constitution amendments that will pave the way for the club’s transformation needed to run the club in a modern way.
The members endorsed constitution amendments during the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) hosted at DYCCC Hall in Dar es Salaam yesterday and graced by former President Jakaya Kikwete.
The club will make minor changes to its constitution in order to go abreast with the current world.
According to member of transition committee Hersi Said, the transformation channel that Yanga has chosen is to let 51 per cent of shares of the club being owned by members, while the remaining 49 per cent stake will be shared among the investors.
He added that transformation procedures will also touch on the restructuring of the administration, so that investors should also have their part in the administration section.
Kikwete used the occasion to urge sports authorities in the country to exercise accountability and transparency in running their daily activities in order to achieve success and development.
“I am glad to see that the current leadership at Yanga is doing a commendable job to ensure that they share information of the club to their members and this is what we call transparency.
“Also, I am pleased to hear that the club has been opening doors to credited auditors who are known by the government to assess on how the revenues are spent something, which is very important to be done,” Kikwete said.
He added: “The issue of managing well finance of the club should be taken seriously because this is the most critical area which can either help the club to move ahead or retard.”
He then urged Yanga members to always come up with constructive ideas and should refrain from embracing people with negative mindset since their target is to destroy instead of building.
Again, the former Head of State advised the club to thoroughly scruitinise coaches and players before recruiting them, to avoid hire and fire syndrome.
“Always make sure that you have done your homework well prior to hiring a coach or a player. If you fail to make a thorough assessment, you will end up firing them after a brief spell at the club.
“Success comes not only through investing in good coaches and players but also making sure that they are treated properly for them to do their tasks well,” he said while urging members and fans to sometimes be patience as new players and coaches cannot shine overnight.
Moreover, he pointed out that what has excited him most about the transformation of the club is that members rights will continue to be respected, saying the club is entirely owned by members.
“If the transformation was centered on the fact that once achieved, the club will be owned by investors, I could not have supported the idea.
But, with this move of letting members own the big portion of the shares, I fully support it,” he said.
He also expressed his satisfaction concerning the fact that the entire procedures to achieve transformation have been inclusive as members in all Yanga branches across the country had opportunity to contribute their ideas.
“I love Yanga, when they win, I become happy and when they lose, I’m disappointed. I hope we will win our game next Saturday,” he said.
Earlier, the club’s Chairman Mshindo Msolla said good governance at the club is what attracted their sponsors like GSM and Taifa Gas to offer a helping hand, saying they could not have come on board if the management was not good enough.
“We are grateful to all our sponsors especially GSM, who are 100 per cent involved in paying signing fees and catering for the team’s camp in Kigamboni, which they willingly,” noted Msolla.
On his part, Director of Sports Yusuph Singo who represented the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Innocent Bashungwa said that in the current era, transformation are inevitable.
“On behalf of government, we hope that we will not see any groups of members coming up to derail transformation since we must change our old ways of running football to go along with the demand of the era we are living now,” Singo said.
