The rivalry between Young African (Yanga SC) and Simba SC has reached another level after the former declined to print their jersey for the new season with a logo of sponsors Vodacom.
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) had requested teams taking part in the Mainland league to use the logo on their shirts, but the logo is in the colour red, which is associated with Yanga rivals Simba.
“We cannot break our constitution and use colours of Simba in our shirts,” Yanga chairman Fredrick Mwakalebela told reporters on Monday.
“We are not disrespecting TFF but we are shocked they want us to use the colour which they know very well belongs to our rivals. We have never agreed to use red in our shirts and it will never happen, not now and not in the future.
“Our stand for now, TFF should talk to the sponsors and ask them to accept our green colour, we respect the sponsors very much and don’t have any problem with them.
“We need the sponsors to come on board and help us, Yanga is facing a financial crisis even now but we should not allow our current problems [financial crisis] to be used to force us to change our constitution. It is not possible and it will never happen.
“Our constitution never allows Yanga to have any red in our shirts or wear anything red.”
The rivalry between Yanga and Simba spans over a decade, and the two clubs never share anything.
The arch-rivals are always at each other’s necks even when they are not playing against each other. They always attend the “enemy’s” matches just to support the other team.
Yanga are currently preparing to face Zesco United of Zambia in the Caf Champions League while Simba have a league match against Mtibwa Sugar on Friday.