August 16, 2022
This week saw the opening of the 58th season of the Tanzania Premier League, which is known as Ligi Kuu Bara in Swahili, or the NBC Premier League for sponsorship reasons.
Since 2000 the league has been dominated by two clubs from the capital Dar-Es-Salaam, with every title being claimed by either Simba SC or Young Africans SC, apart from 2013/14 when Azam FC, another side from Dar-Es-Salaam broke the monopoly.
Simba SC are familiar faces to these diaries, with their 2020/21 CAF Champions League victory in DR Congo against AS Vita in February 2021 being featured here. In addition, I saw them in action whilst on holiday in 2001 in The Seychelles, when they were fortunate to record a 1-0 win over local side Red Star in the first round of the Africa Champions Cup, as it was known then.
Young Africans SC won the 2021/22 title, going through the season unbeaten to end a run of four consecutive titles for Simba. That put Yanga, as they are affectionately known, one title ahead of Simba ( 23 vs 22 ), with no other side in the country having won more than 3 titles.
Tanzania is now the 11th best ranked nation by CAF which entitles them to enter two sides into the CAF Champions Cup and two into the CAF Confederations Cup, whereas for 2021 competition they were 13th which only gave one spot in each competition.
Young Africans will play Zalan from South Sudan is first qualifying round of Champions Cup in September whilst Simba will play Nyasa Big Bullets from Malawi. Azam SC and Geita Gold will play in the Confederations Cup, where Geita Gold play Sudanese club Hilal Alsahil but Azam have a bye to the second round.
The Tanzania Premier League is for the mainland only. Zanzibar have their own competition and qualification into CAF competitions, so it is a bit like the United Kingdom having England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland in European competitions !
The Premier League features 16 sides. As mentioned above, the top 4 now qualify to play in CAF tournaments, whilst the bottom two are automatically relegated. There is an unusual twist to the relegation play-off as the 13th and 14th sides play-off to see who wins the right to play-off against the side finishing third in the Second Division.
The sides in this season’s competition are spread from all over Tanzania. There are 5 sides from the capital Tanzania ( Young Africans, Simba, Azam, KMC and Rivu Shooting Stars ) and three from Mbeya City in the south-west of the country close to the DR Congo border ( Mbeya City, Prisons and Ihefu ).
Other towns represented are Geita in the north-west ( Geita Gold – named after the local gold mine ), Lindi on the south-east coast close to the border with Mozambique ( Namungo ), Bukoba on the Lake Victoria shoreline and close to Rwanda ( Kagera Sugar ), Tanga on the northern coast not too far from Mombasa ( Coastal Union ), Dodoma, Turiani and Singida in the central region ( Dodam Jiji, Mbitwa Sugar and Singida Big Star respectively ) and Moshi, close to the Serengeti National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro in the north of the country, near to the border with Kenya ( Polisi ).
Highlights of all matches in the Tanzania Premier League are available on the Azam TV YouTube channel.
Details on Polisi Tanzania are scant to find on the internet. The side are based in the town of Moshi, playing at the 10,000 capacity Ushirika Stadium but today’s game was being held in the city of Arusha, around 70km away, in the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium which holds 20,000 spectators. It was reported that the Ushirika stadium was suspended but according to the League website, Polisi’s next home match is indeed scheduled to be played in Ushirika. Maybe there was a one match ban due to crowd trouble ?
Polisi had finished 8th in the 2021/22 championship, down from 6th in 2020/21 and 5th in 2019/20
I wasn’t able to find any background details for any of the Polisi starting XI but in contrast, details of the Young Africans squad was freely available. The most notable name is probably 28 year old Gael Bigirimana, who represented England at Under 20 and numbers Coventry, Newcastle and Motherwell amongst his previous clubs. He has won 16 caps for Burundi and his last club was Glentoran.
Yanga’s starting line-up included four players from DR Congo. Right-back Djuma Shabani was previously at AS Vita and as reported in these diaries was their best player in the match against Simba. He has 8 caps for his country. Also playing for AS Vita that day was striker Fiston Mayele, but his performance didn’t warrant any mention in the match report ! Left-back Joyce Lomalisa ( 23 caps ) had a short spell in Belgium with Moeskroen and winger Ducapel Moloko is also from DR Congo
There were three Tanzanian players starting for Young Africans, both centre-backs, Dickson Job ( 11 caps ) and Bakari Mwamnyeto ( 26 caps ), plus midfielder Dickson Ambundo
Three other countries were represented. Keeper Djigui Diarra has 47 caps for Mali, defensive midfielder Khalid Aucho was once on books of Red Star Belgrade and has 45 caps for Uganda, and ex-Aris Limassol midfielder Stephane Aziz Ki has made 5 appearances for Burkina Faso
Substitute winger Bernard Morrison is from Ghana and has played in South Africa for Orlando Pirates. Of the other substitutes, Feisal Salum and Faridi Mussa are both locals, although Heritier Makambo is another member of the DR Congo contingent. The coach of Young Africans is also a foreigner, Tunisian Nasriddine Nabi.
The distance from Dar-Es-Saleem to Arusha is 625km, which takes an estimated 10 and a half hours by road. However, Arusha is served by two airports, Kilimanjaro International and the smaller Arusha Airport, which caters from domestic flights. It is likely that Young Africans would have flown to fulfil the fixture !
Polisi Tanzania played in a black/grey kit that looked more like a T-Shirt rather than a traditional football shirt, probably much more suitable for the weather conditions, although it had just the club badge with no sponsorship or player’s names on the back, just their numbers. Young Africans wore a predominately green kit with yellow trimmings. The temperature at 16.00 local time kick-off on a nice sunny day was around 26 degrees.
Young Africans started strongly with Aziz Ki forcing a diving save from the Polisi keeper in the second minute and they won a penalty in the 10th minute, when Moloko fell to the floor after a challenge from Kukuti. It looked a bit soft, but Mayele’s side footed spot-kick was well saved by keeper Igendelezi, in a distinctive all white kit, diving to his left
Yanga continued to press, and after Shabani won a corner, from the resulting delivery Moloko headed against the bar from close range, having beaten the keeper to the cross.
Young Africans created another glorious chance in the 21st minute when Ambundo was released down the left-hand channel and his low cross was steered wide of the far post by Mayele.
Against the run of play, Polisi took the lead in the 34th minute. A swift counter-attack saw a cross played in from the left-wing but unfortunately for the visitors, Bakari Mwamnyeto’s attempted clearance struck the leg of Salum Kipemba and flew into the bottom corner for a fortunate goal, and giving keeper Diarra no chance.
Polisi’s approach to defending could politely be described as “rough-house”, and after Stambuli chopped down Moloko, Young Africans had a free-kick on the edge of the area. Shabani’s free-kick was blasted at the wall and deflected high into the air towards the far post where the unmarked Mwamnyeto headed powerfully downwards. The Polisi keeper made a good one-handed save, and after a scramble in the 6 yard box the ball fell to Mayele who placed the ball high into the net from 10 yards for the equaliser after 41 minutes.
Yanga should have gone into the interval with a goal advantage but after another uncompromising foul, Aziz Ki’s chipped free-kick was headed wide by Mayele from 6 yards out.
Yanaga totally dominated the second half but struggled to make the breakthrough against some rugged defending and inspired goal-keeping. Polisi were reduced to optimistic long distance free-kick, of which only one, from Athuman, caused keeper Diarra any difficulty, making a smart punch over the bar in the 58th minute.
Otherwise, it was one-way traffic, and the Younga supporters would have been increasingly concerned the longer the game stayed level. The coach rang the changes but still the goal wouldn’t come. Lomalisa’s dangerous cross from the left just evade Mayele, corners and crosses were well dealt with by the Polisi centre-backs, and Igendelezi bravely punched away Moloko’s cross before getting clattered by Job.
Yanga thought they had taken the lead in the 70th minute when a cross from the left was turned across goal at the back post by Salum for Mayele to tap into the empty net. However, the referee deemed Salum had pushed Kukuti, disallowed the goal, and gave a yellow card to Salum. It looked a harsh decision.
Salum then saw a shot from close to the penalty spot bravely blocked by a defender which then flew over the bar for a corner. With 12 minutes to go there could have been a penalty to Young Africans as Mayele and Nkoma slid in for a tackle, but the referee decided that the first contact was by the Congolese striker. Mayele had regained his balance, rounded the keeper and had an empty net when the referee blew his whistle.
In the 84th minute Mayele cushioned a header to give Morrison a sight of goal, but the Ghanian’s shot hit the underside of the bar and off to safety. Although the resulting corner was cleared, the ball was worked back to Morrison on the left and his in-swinging cross was met by Mwamnyeto at the far past, having escaped the attention of Kukuti, to steer home close range for the winning goal. The large number of Young Africans supporters in the crowd celebrated wildly
There was still time for Polisi to receive a red card, as a clumsy tackle by Mmnaga produced a second yellow for him, and he had to go.
Polisi Tanzania : Igendelezi –Chuku, Stambuli, Mmanga, Kukuti – Nkoma, Kipemba, Athuman ( Godfgrey ), Kapona – Kandulu ( Hamisi ), Kipangwile
Young Africans SC : Diarra– Shabani, Mwamnyeto, Job, Lomalisa – Moloko ( Makambo ), Aucho, Aziz Ki, Bigirimana ( Salum ), Ambundo ( Morrison ) – Mayele ( Mussa )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBs6h4QRBv8
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