AfricaPress-Tanzania: YOUNG Africans is in turmoil as three members of Executive Committee stepped down on Friday, while two others have been suspended.
Shija Richard, Rodgers Gumbo and Said Kambi have all stepped down, the decision that has been blessed by the club leadership.
According to a statement released by Yanga Chairman, Mshindo Msolla, the club’s Executive Committee has received and approved the trio’s decision to resign.
“The Excom has also resolved to suspend two members –Salim Rupia and Frank Kamugisha effective today, pending the decision of the General Meeting, according to the club’s constitution,” reads the statement.
The statement said the post of elected members of Excom will be filled immediately in accordance with Section 29 (3) of the club’s constitution.
Msolla said in his statement that the decision was reached by the Executive Committee that convened in Dar es Salaam from Thursday to Friday.
The meeting was summoned following recent complaints raised by one of the team’s main sponsors GSM against some club officials.
Earlier on Friday, Richard issued a brief statement announcing his decision to step down, citing internal squabbles.
Richard, Rupia, Gumbo and Kamugisha were reportedly to have been at loggerhead with the team’s main sponsors GSM, demanding clarity in the deal.
In his brief statement, Shija said; “Yanga is bigger than an individual like me and any other. So many things are going around but I will not divulge anything…time will tell. I’m quite sure that the truth will come to the shore,” he said.
Two days ago, GSM announced that henceforth, they will only concentrate to what is contained in the contract between the two sides and not otherwise.
A letter from GSM to Yanga dated March 24th this year and signed by GSM’s Project Executive Feisal Mohamed, which went viral on different social media platforms, disclosed that the former were deeply concerned with actions by some leaders of the club, who accused GSM of interfering in their roles.
“Let me take this opportunity to thank the entire leadership of Yanga for the cooperation they made towards ensuring that our club restores its reputation. It should be remembered that we have tried on our part to solve some of the challenges faced by the club even though they were not included in our contract,” reads part of the letter.
It named some of the things which they (GSM) fulfilled but were aside from the signed contract between the two parties as bringing back the team’s central defender Lamine Moro, signing other players to strengthen the squad like Bernard Morrison, Haruna Niyonzima, Ditram Nchimbi and Adeyum Saleh.
“To hire and pay all expenses of the team’s Head Coach and fitness coach plus covering their accommodations and transport within the country as well as paying salaries and bonuses whenever the team won the league match from December last year.
“We also pledged 200m/-to motivate players to win their traditional derby match against Simba, which was later fulfilled plus footing all camp and hotel bills from December last year, including air tickets for players and officials of the club,” reads the letter.
In conclusion, it said regrettably, they have been concerned with actions by some leaders of the club, who are accusing them of interfering in their responsibilities as such, they have decided to stop doing what they were obliged to do out of their contract as mentioned above.
“On behalf of GSM, we apologise to anybody whom we have hurt during the period we were cooperating to help our club. We will continue to sponsor Yanga by sticking to only those things contained in our contract. We wish them well,” the letter concluded.
