Cheerio TFF, but we are still underdogs

It is about four years now since the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) was formed, and automatically, those holding its offices have, likewise, gone through and experience of four years.

Of course, for serious thought, four years is not a short time for serious minds engaged in execution of a task attracting the attention of millions of interested eyes and ears.

Whether those in office have delivered the goods to some reasonable extent or negligible extent is a matter of decision particularly on the part of the onlookers.

One of the major, respected soccer stakeholders in the country, Kassim Dewji, observed that during the four years in which TFF office holders have been in power, they have not yet managed to uplift the standard of soccer in the country.

He said that the office bearers, under Leodegar Tenga, have managed to play their part for about 40 per cent only, on account of the fact that the standard of soccer in the country has not yet come of age as our soccer teams have yet to score any remarkable victory on the international scene.

On the other hand, he lauded TFF efforts in securing the hands of sponsors, a factor which has greatly helped our national soccer team to embark on the needed preparations, contrary to the past before their entry onto the country`s soccer scene.

In total fairness, Dewji`s observations are shared by many soccer fans in the country, particularly with the fact that despite our better performance in the run to the African Cup finals in Ghana in the recent past, we did not manage to go there.

And, despite our good performance in which we humbled teams like Burkina Faso – both at our home ground and in their capital before their kith and kin – we ended up with nothing in our palms.

This is not to mention the encouraging performance in which we drew at home with one of Africa’s soccer giants, Senegal, in the same run.

Those holding TFF’s office have to eat humble pie, in respect of the fact that our soccer team has yet to bring solace to its people.

As cited by Dewji, despite our having played host to the Challenge Cup twice and the East and Central Africa Club Championship, we ended up without winning the cap!

Such discouraging, true stories have to be confessed as a bit humiliating for our soccer authorities in the country.

And it is such confession which would provide the needed leeway for them to have high hopes of performing better in their endeavours to bring respect to soccer in our country and beyond its borders.

While, soccer fans and stakeholders appreciate what Tenga and his colleagues have done in the four years of their administration, the most important factor for them to garner the needed respect in their daily chores is to pay attention to what football lovers in the country say and suggest.

It is an open secret that the spirit of soccer in the country has diametrically gone up among Tanzanians who used to shun and hold its national soccer team and local clubs in low esteem.

Therefore, while the same people point out at the shortcomings and shortfalls in soccer administration, it is the hope of the same people that Tenga and his colleagues  if they are lucky enough to bump back to the offices of TFF as administrators  will do the needful to bring respect not only to Tanzania`s soccer but to themselves also as major innovators.

There is an axiom which runs thus: A familiar knife is trusted more than a new one.

On this score, due to the positive results garnered by Tenga and company, onlookers have all the reasons to trust them if they decide to vie for another term to implement some programmes they feel they did not or cannot accomplish in their current term in office.

While TFF officials deserve all appreciation for what they have achieved for Tanzanians in the four years, they also deserve the right to be given another term to deliver what they had in their sleeves but the time factor only seems to bar them.

• SOURCE: Guardian