Israel Saria
FIFA Regional Development Officer, Ashford Mamelodi, who is leading a high level delegation of the world football body for a tour to supervise `Goal Project 3`, has poured praise on outgoing Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) officials under the stewardship of Leodegar Tenga.
Addressing a press conference at the National Stadium yesterday, Mamelodi said it was time TFF delegates voted into office aspirants whose goal is to promote soccer, taking account of their track record.
“The issue of performance is something that needs to be judged by the members themselves and then put their commitment on that issue,“ he said while touching on TFF general elections slated for December 14.
He hailed Tenga`s style of administration, which was keen on transparency to the extent of giving private and well respected audit firms to audit TFF, which he said was different from the way things were done in the past, whereby the country’s judicial system was forced to push it out of office.
“Any institution has to be organised, run along professional lines and we FIFA always trust transparency as key; be open about your activities then people will respect you.
“But if you hide certain things or if you go about it in an unprofessional manner, you lose credibility,“ he said, saying that TFF was among few soccer bodies in which Fifa has trust.
Regarding Goal Project 3, Mamelodi said after TFF proved it was focused on developing soccer standards while employing transparency in its operations, Fifa decided to initiate its own development projects in Tanzania, starting with a disbursement of $400,000 to be shared by three countries – Tanzania, Mauritius and Zambia.
He said the money would be used to give yearly renewable licenses to footballers so as to arrest age cheating.
At the press conference, Mamelodi was accompanied by Fifa Senior Manager, Programmes Development Cyril Loisel and TFF Secretary General Frederick Mwakalebela. The Fifa delegation also went to Zanzibar for an excursion tour.
- SOURCE: Sunday Observer
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