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Taifa Cup in need of immediate overhaul
2008-05-17 09:16:54
By Editor
The national inter-regional soccer tournament, which is supposed to be an annual event but has actually been off and on, has limped back into life this year.
In fact, it is going on right now in Dar es Salaam.
The championship has a long but troubled history, once having gone into forced `hibernation` for several years for reasons that are said to have included funding problems, waning interest and support from the national soccer authorities, and uncertainty about whether it would be a break-even venture.
There was also the fact that some regions could marshal enough financial muscle to go into meaningful pre-competition camp training while others, hard as they would try, just could not.
A total of 23 Mainland regional teams assembled in Dar es Salaam for this year`s edition of the championship, with the hosts represented by three outfits – Ilala, Kinondoni and Temeke. Some are already back home after being knocked out.
Although there are possibly things that could be said in defence of the championship, there is no denying that there have been more complaints than compliments from soccer lovers and the larger public.
One telling example of this is that of the headline to the leading sports story in a national daily: `Coast Region to face Simba/Yanga`.
Now, this is an inter-regional tournament, while archrivals Simba and Yanga are arguably Tanzania’s most notable soccer clubs.
This was thus a sarcastic reference to the fact that most players forming the Ilala team that Coast was due to face played for the two Premier League clubs – an obvious anomaly.
Additionally, Simba and Yanga are assortments of players from all over Tanzania and beyond – and hence the argument that it is wrong for all to feature for Dar es Salaam regional teams and not their `native` regional teams when it is time for Taifa Cup.
Taifa Cup has been staged since the 1950s, the prime objective being to identify and groom promising young soccer players from all Mainland regions.
The championship once did just that - helping in uplifting the standard of soccer in the country.
But it is now generally believed that it no longer affords young players enough opportunity to enhance and showcase their skills and thus appeal to soccer giants like Simba and Yanga as well as Taifa Stars – the national team.
This year`s edition of Taifa Cup has attracted lucrative sponsorship, unlike most previous ones, but this has hardly won it added sparkle or lustre.
Having teams comprise experienced premier league club players effectively defeats the very intention of grooming young talent.
Indeed, why should sponsors inject staggering amounts of money into the championship while all we end up seeing are a few teams boasting experienced Premier League players facing hastily assembled outfits featuring relative novices?
The authorities concerned should move to change these senseless battles of eggs against stones into more relevant and useful events that abide by the ideals and objectives of the Taifa Cup we used to know, love and have great pride in.
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