John Bocco of Simba SC and Juma Makapu of Yanga SCMwanaspoti

June 13: Board set date for Tanzania Mainland League restart

The Tanzania Mainland League will resume on June 13, CEO Almasi Kasongo has confirmed.

The top tier took a break in mid-March owing to coronavirus outbreak but Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli gave the green light for it to resume after June 1.

On Thursday night, the league management confirmed the date for restart has been set with fixtures to be released this weekend.

Article continues below

"The 2019/20 league season will resume from June 13, 2020," CEO Almasi Kasongo said as tweeted by the Tanzania Premier League Board.

"Fixtures will be released on Sunday, May 31."

Before the league took a break, most teams had played 28 matches out of 38, with 20-time champions Simba SC leading the pack with 71 points. The Msimbazi-based side are also the defending champions and are targeting their third title in a row.

Having a healthy gap of 17 points between them and second-placed Azam, Wekundu wa Msimbazi need at most five wins to be crowned.

Simba have already started their joint training at the Mo Simba Arena in Buju in readiness to restart their title defence but the forward thinks it is not going to be an easy task.   

"The league is going to be tough and the remaining matches will be tougher as teams will be chasing for the three important points from every game," Tanzania international John Bocco is quoted by the club's website.  

Although there is no clear rival for the Wekundu wa Msimbazi in as far as the title chase is concerned, Bocco feels teams will be fighting to improve on their league standings.

"The points will be important for teams who will be looking to move up the ladder while the ones sitting at the bottom will be fighting to dodge imminent relegation," the towering attacker continued.

On the government's directive for matches to be played in one city, Bocco said it while may sound unfair for other teams, it remains the best decision taken by the authorities.

“It will be good for the teams that are residing in the city [Dar es Salaam] but for those who are from the upcountry they will feel they are playing away in all the matches. But there is no other option really because this is an emergency issue,” explained the forward.

The move to stage the matches in Dar es Salaam was necessitated by the need to contain the spread of the coronavirus which caused the league to be suspended.

Advertisement