Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports Fenella Mukangara on Saturday called on club coaches to utilise the U-15 Copa Coca-Cola national football finals as a platform of identifying new football talents for their teams.
Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Dr Fenella Mukangara
Minister Mukangara gave the advice at Karume Memorial Stadium in Dar es Salaam, while officiating at the opening of national U-15 Copa Coca-Cola finals, which involves girls and boys teams from various regions in the country.
Mukangara urged the youngsters to work hard as the nation waits for them to come and raise the profile of Tanzanian football at various international championships.
She also insisted that all participating players and officials should observe discipline on and off the pitch. “I am glad to see girls being included in this year’s Copa Coca- Cola tournament and I sincerely thank the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) for taking women soccer seriously.
We expect you to adhere to the rules of the game as advocated by the world football governing body – FIFA,” she said. Earlier in his welcome speech, Coca-Cola Tanzania Country Manager Yebeltal Getachew expressed his firm’s commitment to continue supporting football in Tanzania.
Copa Coca-Cola package also involves sending selected players for further training in South Africa and other countries. This is done every year and the recent camp was held in Pretoria, South Africa, last October.
Copa Coca-Cola is the youth tournament that is played from the grassroots to the national level, covering all the 140 districts across Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.
Speaking at the same occasion, TFF President Jamal Malinzi sounded tough over officials involved in age cheating. “To show that we are serious in investing on youth football and we will not tolerate with people who want to cheat on their player’s age, we have disqualified 87 players, including the entire Mbeya and Lindi teams,” said Malinzi.
Malinzi said best players out of this year’s national championships will be identified and assembled at Lord Baden Powell Memorial High School in Bagamoyo to prepare for the U-17 Africa Youth tournament in 2017.
“We are in agreement with the owner of the school, Idd Kipingu, a football stakeholder and retired Chairman of the National Sports Council,” he said. In the opening day, newcomers Simiyu got a rough welcome after suffering a 3-1 defeat in the hands of Kigoma in a curtain raiser of the championships held at Karume Stadium.
The victors got their lead through Juma Salehe in the 8th minute of the game. Juma Zuber doubled the lead in the 30th minute and Idrisa Akilimali added the third in the 57th minute, while Simiyu notched their consolation goal in the dying minutes through Kaluona Abdallah. The week-long event national Copa Coca-Cola finals which kicked off yesterday will climax next Saturday.
Source Tanzania Daily News