Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Premier League Board (TPLB) said the date of the Dar es Salaam derby between Young Africans and Simba remains intact and won’t be affected by minor changes made to the league’s fixture.
The two sides will lock horns on October 18th at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam, their first ever meeting since this league season kicked off after the end of Covid-19 scare.
It looks to be the biggest derby in East and Central Africa as it will put on pitch high skilled players from almost all parts of the continent.
Also likely to make this derby appeal a big number of fans is the presence of many headline- making players, especially at the midfield and finishing parts on the both sides.
Clarifying on this here was TPLB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Almas Kasongo who cemented that some matches have been affected following the changes excluding the big game of the season (Yanga v Simba).
“As you remember, when we announced the season’s fixture, we alerted that it will have some changes when FIFA and CAF release their match calendars. “As of now, we have officially received their calendars therefore, we are obliged to make alterations so as to accommodate the matches which falls in their respective calendars,” said Kasongo.
He added that due to FIFA and CAF calendars, the fixture changes will affect all league matches in sixth and seventh rounds while in the eighth round, two games will be affected and in the ninth round, only one game will be changed. He continued: “In the tenth and eleventh rounds, all matches will be affected while in the twelfth round, two games will be altered whilst in the thirteenth round, three encounters will be rescheduled.”
Moreover, Kasongo narrated that some matches which were set to begin from 3:00 pm have been dragged back to 2:00 pm so as to provide more time for a live broadcast.
“Up to now, Azam have managed to broadcast live 35 matches out of 36 games which have been played this season meaning that they only missed to beam live one game due to technical problems,” he said.
Furthermore, the board’s boss remarked that they have also take note to the fact that some playing venues like Gwambina Complex, Jamhuri Stadium in Morogoro, Ushirika Stadium in Moshi, Karume Stadium in Mara and Mabatini Stadium have been suspended hence the new fixture will take into consideration of the venue changes.
“We are also in talks with our colleagues from CAF to know the exact dates of the start of CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup whose Tanzanian envoys are Simba and Namungo FC respectively.
“These two competitions will also enforce us to make further changes to our new fixture to include the twin contests,” said he while cementing that the big derby clash date between Yanga and Simba remain as initially planned.
