FIFA series ideal for Taifa Stars

TANZANIA: A WORLD football governing body (FIFA) has handed Tanzania an opportunity to play international friendly matches again this year in the newly introduced 2024 FIFA Series.

Taifa Stars will be the only team from the CECAFA Zone in the tournament that involves national teams from different confederations who do not usually have the opportunity to play against each other.

The ultimate objective of the FIFA Series is to allow more international football interaction, making a concrete contribution to global football development.

The Stars will battle a team from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Bulgaria and Mongolia from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) during the tournament slated for March 22-25th, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

They will open their campaign against Bulgaria on March 22nd at the Dalga Arena and will return to action on March 25th, 2024 against Mongolia.

We see that as an opportunity handed to Tanzania on a silver platter and it is important to take the mini-tournament serious as they will be ideal in preparations for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The tournament in Azerbaijan will be a significant step forward for national-team football at a global level as it gives national teams opportunity to test themselves against their counterparts from all around the world.

We understand more meaningful matches will enable far more valuable footballing interaction for players, teams, and fans, and will make a concrete contribution to the development of the game.

With the national team squad already announced, we are urge sport government body to make preparations for the mini-tournament knowing there would be no financial problems as FIFA will incur all the cost.

For selected players, it will be time to impress the coach so that they are recalled in forthcoming assignments and for the team it would be time to prove that FIFA did not make mistakes to choose them.

Taifa Stars should continue where they ended in the AFCON 2023 where they showed improved performance although they failed to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament.