Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Football Federation ( TFF ) president Wallace Karia has suggested that it would be better to rename the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam as Benjamin Mkapa Stadium for him to be remembered by many generations to come.
This comes as the sports fraternity in the country joined the rest of the world to pay tributes to Mkapa while remembering him for his contribution to the development and promotion of sports sector besides ordering the construction of the state of the art National Stadium.
However, the 60,000 capacity venue, though called Benjamin Mkapa by some of foreign writers, according to Karia should be officially named Benjamin Mkapa.
Speaking yesterday, Karia urged the concerned authorities that if it pleases them, they should rename the giant Stadium after the late Benjamin Mkapa. ”
I think this is the perfect moment for our friends tasked to overlook the National Stadium to change its name to Benjamin Mkapa Stadium so that the upcoming generations should also be remembering him. ”
It will be interesting to hear the name of Mkapa be regularly mentioned when national team, Simba or Young Africans want to use the venue to play matches,” Karia said.
He added that by renaming the stadium after the late Benjamin Mkapa, it will be a big honour similar to the ones given to fallen heroes like Karume Stadium and Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium, Sokoine stadium, Samora Stadium among others. Moreover, Karia said the National Stadium has all the qualities required by the world football governing body (FIFA) hence it is a legacy which will remain forever.
“We are fortunate to have such a magnificent stadium which is the best in East and Central Africa. Most of the countries in Africa do not have such kind of the stadium butwe have it courtesy of him (late Mkapa),” he said. He continued:
“I believe that by the time he decided to construct the stadium, he realised that football is now a major source of revenue generation and employment to the players who are making money to support their lives through football.”
Again, Karia narrated that according to the current record by CAF, the National Stadium is among the top venues making huge profits from gate collections after Morocco, Egypt and South Africa.
Meanwhile, some sport stakeholders have criticised TFF for failing to invite the late Mkapa to attend live any football match played at the National Stadium during his lifetime saying that was a negative gesture from the country’s football governing body.
