AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Premier League Board (TPLB) cemented the reason behind the suspension of some of the Premier League’s venues saying it is the prerequisite of club licensing.
This came as a response to the stern warning given to the owners of Ushirika Stadium in Moshi, which is used as the home ground to the Premier league side, Polisi Tanzania, to upgrade the venue or else face suspension.
So far, TPLB has suspended two venues which are Gwambina Complex home to Gwambina FC and Karume Stadium in Mara used by Biashara United for failure to keep the pitch at admired standards among other reasons.
But, pounding further on this subject, TPLB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Almas Kasongo underscored that the exercise will continue until the venues become friendly to host league duels.
“In football, pitch is the most important thing to be closely looked at because it is where the whole action takes place as such, all the venues which have been suspended have in one way or the other failed to meet such criteria.
“Again, there are many other venues which are still used but to not have friendly pitches and we are not going to spare them provided our team become fully convinced that they lack essential requirements according to the available constitution of running the league,” he said.
He added that their main objective is to ensure that the aims of the club licensing are met as already agreed by all the clubs which trade in three leagues of the top flight league, First Division League (FDL) and Second Division League (SDL).
Again, Kasongo underscored that the suspension of the venues is happening now while the season unfolds because the club licensing committee did not have enough time to inspect all the venues prior to the start of the current season due to the Covid-19 crisis.
“Many programmes to be implemented by TPLB were paralysed following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic as such, even our team which was tasked to inspect the playing grounds could not easily fulfill their duties and they have been forced to do that while the league rages on,” he added.
Furthermore, Kasongo reiterated that the only way to see improvement of the country’s football is to take stern action where appropriate while highlighting that gone are the days when the issues regarding refurbishment of playing arenas were ignored.
“The base of club licensing regulations is to attract fair play in the game of football such that when a team enjoys playing against Azam FC at their Azam Complex, even Azam FC should enjoy in the same way when they come to play at your territory. That is what fair play is all about,” Kasongo lamented.
According to him, TPLB recognises the club as the owner of the venue where their respective home matches are played and not government or CCM which owns many league staging grounds in the country.
