The way forward on Nurturing a more Competitive League

 

Success, Money, Fame, glory, supporters, passion – is that the way that we are supposed to arrange it? Is that RIGHT?

Passion, supporters, glory, success, fame, money – Can you see the difference? No. it’s not easy, but we know it, it’s in all our hearts.

I have never been really keen in Tanzanian football. It’s not like I have been ignoring it, but I have grown up to know football from the television. Every weekend I would buckle myself up, switch on the telly and all I would see is Manchester united, Barcelona, Chelsea fc and several other teams that I was unaware of. There is no difference from then to now. It is quite the same. Switch on the television and all you would see is foreign football. Kenyan, Ghanaian, South African but not Tanzanian.

Several times that I am being asked if I was a Young Africans FC or a Simba SC supporter. I have never really had an answer, might as well say that I have never really thought of an answer. Until recently, I had to ask myself a similar question, not quite, but close. Which team do I support in my own country? Why do I like Ajax FC and Liverpool FC but none of my local teams? Then comes an easier answer. Most people who do support the two successful teams have been grown in the same roots. Its either the father was a huge fan, would take him to the stadium every time the rivals had a derby or he has a relative close to the two teams, maybe a former player or a board member. On the other hand people like I who can’t go to matches keep on hearing or just reading about the team. And so I thought, our main problem here is publicity. Solve that problem then the others will solve themselves by default or the remainder will be very minor that people will hardly notice

If there was one thing that Tanzania football misses then publicity would certainly be. What a football team needs to survive is supporters. Starting from fans that buy match tickets, fans who stay at home and watch the match on the television to sponsorship partners. Neither of that can be obtained without publicity.

What’s cutting back on this is that broadcasting is not easy in such poor conditions… football grounds that do not reach the level standards to sustain supporter’s stands plus the best broadcasting.
To start broadcasting football, certain measures must be taken. A few policies and requirement should be introduced. As per the following flow, one might think it’s just a fantasy, but reading and thinking about it carefully might serve it right;

1.     A stadium named for every team during home games. Stadiums which meet maximum requirement for both FIFA and TFF. Stating this, some people might think it is impossible … “small teams with inadequate funds won’t be able to”, you might say. But there are several ways to pass by this.

a)     2-3 teams may build a stadium or renovate a stadium and share it under contract.

b)    Teams may enroll into a contract with the regional government and the TFF and consider regional stadiums.

2.     Stadium – Player transfer and spending ratios.

      We’ve seen this being applied in established European leagues.  But the TFF should restructure this even more strictly. Teams should be limited to spending lesser amount of money in transfers corresponding to their home stadiums….. Giving out an example, teams with stadiums that can hold more supporters are awarded with higher limit. Safe to say this policy supports youth players, teams are restricted to spend more on players but rather grow their own. I wouldn’t want to go deep into that, but a topic that I wish to discuss next time, Tanzania’s youth in football, broadcasting and the national team.
     I would also appreciate if you comment, add a few stuff that you think might help in that particular part of Tanzanian football, tell me what is possible and what can be done or at least looked upon by the TFF.

             My vision for the future. follow me on twitter @Abriel2twit