AfricaPress-Tanzania: TAIFA Stars Head Coach, Etienne Ndayiragije said he has seen great improvement in Tanzania football for the past four years, saying low ranked teams are becoming very competitive than before.
Ndayiragije, who took over the national team responsibilities from then Nigerian trainer Emmanuel Amunike, has vast experience of the country’s football, having coached Mbao FC, KMC and Azam FC respectively.
“Previously, when teams came to play at the National Stadium against big teams like Simba and Young Africans, it was not surprising to see them being defeated heavily with five to six goals but now, things have changed.
“Low level teams are now able to stage resistance to big teams and you can see good football from them, which is very promising in developing football standard,” he said.
He added that what is needed now is to promote these lowly ranked teams, to reach high levels so that they can bring major title challenge in the league.
“If we can be able to push these teams to upper levels, I am sure that even Simba, Yanga or Azam can automatically stop hunting players from outside the country and concentrate on locally available players.
“To easily achieve this, I think former players should also be involved so that they can too contribute their ideas on what they think should be the better way to drive up the teams from the low to high standards,” he said.
About the issue of minimising the number of foreign players in the Mainland Premier League, Ndayiragije said he does not see any reason to approve that regulation.
“The presence of foreign players make the domestic players to be serious on the battlefield so as not to lose playing time and I have seen that due to hard work from local players, even the imported ones are sometimes benched.
“Our aim is to reach international levels and that can be fulfilled if we let foreign players to come and play together with the domestic ones.
“For instance, John Bocco plays well with Meddie Kagere but the former’s effort doubles due to his good performance that is why he has the captain armband not because he is a Tanzanian but rather his work rate speaks volume,” he said.
Ndayiragije was ready to guide his squad for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers and 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Cameroon before the events were suspended due to Covid-19 pandemic.
