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Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s national football team (Taifa Stars) have departed in the early hours of today for Azerbaijan ahead of the world football governing body (FIFA)’s inaugural international friendlies.
The team’s squad included nine players of Tanzania’s envoys in the CAF Champions League, Young Africans (Yanga) and Simba players.
The players from Yanga are Aboutwalib Mshery, Bakari Mwamnyeto, Ibrahim “Baca” Hamad, Mudathir Yahya and Clement Mzize while those from Simba are Aishi Manula, Mohammed “Tshabalala” Hussein, Kennedy Juma and Kibu Dennis.
However, there were plans for Yanga and Simba officials to ask the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to drop their players from the national team so they could have the enough time of preparations for the CAF Champions League matches. There had been arguments from various football stakeholders questioning the decision of including Yanga and Simba players in the Taifa Stars squad while it was known that they were facing uphill tasks. Many stakeholders advised TFF to exclude the players from the quad so that they could prepare adequately for the matches scheduled to take place on March 29 and 30 at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Yanga will face Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Simba will meet Al Ahly of Egypt, who are the competition defending champions
However, TFF information officer Clifford Ndimbo said all the players announced by Taifa Stars interim head coach Hemed “Morocco” Suleiman travelled with the team ahead of the special matches. “We did not receive any request from the two clubs regarding their players. What I know is that all the players are in the trip and ready for the inauguration of the FIFA Series matches,” said Ndimbo on the phone.
Apart from the players of Yanga and Simba, others in the trip are Kwesi Kawawa (Syrianka FC, Sweden); Novatus Dismas (Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine); Miano Danillo (Villena); Haji Mnoga (Aldershot Town, England); Feisal Salum, Zayd (Azam FC): Morice Michael (RFK Novi Sad, Serbia), Himid Mao (Tala’ea El Gaish SC, Egypt), and Tarryn Allarakhia of Wealdstone, England. Also, on the list are Simon Msuva (Alnajmah, Saudi Arabia), Ben Starkie (Ilkeston Town FC, England, Charles M’mombwa (Macarthur FC, Australia) and Abdul Suleiman Sopu, who plays for Azam FC.
According to the fixture, Taifa Stars will play their first match on March 22 against Bulgaria and another against Mongolia on March 25.
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