AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE late President John Magufuli had warned the minister responsible for sports that if Taifa Stars failed to qualify for the Afcon finals he would sack him.
But as we all know, President Magufuli is unfortunately no more. But that warning, in my opinion, still stands because the newly sworn in President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has already said that she would follow the footsteps of her predecessor and mentor.
What this means, is that the sports ministry must put more weight to ensure Taifa Stars win their last two crucial matches against Equatorial Guinea and Libya to qualify for the Afcon finals.
According to the initial Afcon match schedules, Taifa Stars had been scheduled to play against Equatorial Guinea and away from home on 22nd March this year and play their last match at home in Dar es Salaam against Libya on March 28th this year.
But the latest Afcon match schedules show that Taifa Stars would play against Equatorial Guinea and away from home tomorrow. Last Monday Taifa Stars had gone down by 2-1 in a friendly match they played against their Kenyan counterparts, Harambee Stars as part of their preparations for the forthcoming Afcon qualifiers.
The second friendly match was however, cancelled following the death of President John Magufuli and this means that Taifa Stars would have played only one friendly match before taking on Equatorial Guinea.
In the first friendly match against Harambee Stars and under the new Danish coach, Kim Poulsen, Taifa Stars showed weaknesses both in defence and attack, areas that the coach would certainly have to work on if Taifa Stars is to do well both against Equatorial Guinea and Libya in their last match in Dar es Salaam.
As I had occasion to note in my last sports column, one of the TFF’s major problems has been their failure to organise adequate friendly matches for Taifa Stars whenever the team is scheduled to play in competitive continental soccer matches. And, because of the foregoing weakness, Taifa Stars have always found themselves having to play Afcon and Fifa World Cup qualifiers without adequate preparations, hence their defeats.
Unfortunately, this cavalier conduct on the part of the TFF officials has, with time not only grown into a practice, but rather as a tradition. Had the government had say on the TFF officials, they would have been sacked one year after getting into office! But as we all know, the government has absolutely no say on the TFF.
That is why President Magufuli had warned his sports minister who is not under the jurisdiction of the Fifa, but Tanzania’s president who also happens to be the appointing authority. When the president warned his sports minister, it was immediately after he had appointed his cabinet and that is about three months ago.
Now if you count the months which have passed since the president appointed his cabinet, you would note that there has been adequate time for the TFF officials to organise adequate friendly matches for Taifa Stars in preparation for their two, remaining qualifier matches against Equatorial Guinea and Libya.
But the TFF did nothing until their Kenyan counterparts came up with the suggestion of the two friendly matches! Harambee Stars are expected to play their last two qualifiers against Egypt and Togo and had organised five friendly matches against four countries, two matches against Tanzania and three matches against three, different countries.
Therefore, once again, Taifa Stars will be playing yet their last crucial Afcon qualifier matches after having played together as a team and under a new coach in only one match! The question I keep on asking myself is, why did they sack the coach who had not only selected the team for the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Cameroon, but had also known the chemistry of his players?
In the CHAN tournament, we won one match, drew another and lost one. It was our best CHAN participation in history. Personally, I’m not against the TFF’s decision to bring in the Danish coach. In fact, I would have still brought in Poulsen, but not for Taifa Stars, but for organising soccer academies in this country.
Poulsen as we all know is well versed in managing and running soccer academies. In fact, the sacked Burundian coach could have worked very well with Poulsen because he had also worked with soccer academies when he was with Barcelona FC and Germany soccer clubs. The TFF have never failed to surprise me with negative decisions.
They sack a coach, who has already known his charges and brings in a new coach when they know they don’t have time for two remaining, important qualifiers! Not in the distant past, we used to complain that the government was not helping us. But the departed president promised, as he lived on, that the government would this time support sports, starting with Taifa Stars.
