DAR ES SALAAM: AS the country’s Premier League continues to gain popularity across the continent with its massive investment, the influence of foreign players should not be undervalued.
It is good to see that the doors are wide open for footballers from any country in the world to come and play in the domestic league, provided they agree on working details with the clubs that are interested to hire their services.
In the past, only few clubs like Simba, Young Africans and Azam had the required financial muscles to get players from outside the country, but now even teams that feature in the Championship League are able to sign them.
A good way to see that the Premier League accommodates players from many different nations is during the derby games involving the three sides Simba, Yanga and Azam.
In such matches, you can count nationality of individual players, which may surpass 10, an indication that the league is attractive enough to absorb such players from outside the boundaries.
Until now, a team that compete in domestic football league still has the capacity to sign up to 12 foreign players and can deploy all of them in a single match, according to the amendment of Article 61:1 which clarifies on the number of foreign players.
The article was amended on August 12th, 2022 giving a green light to teams to feature all the 12 signed foreign players in one match and before its amendment, a team was required to deploy only seven foreign players in one match.
Authorities have taken proactive steps towards recruiting foreign players, recognising their positive impact on the development and sustainability of Tanzanian footballers.
Just recently, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said presence of foreign players in the country’s Premier League helps to awaken their domestic counterparts.
He disclosed this on Monday during a ceremony to receive Mobile Production Vehicles for Outside Broadcasting procured by Azam Media Limited held at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
“When you confine yourself, it becomes very difficult to go far… development comes through seeing on how somebody developed then you get jealous by figuring out what to do in order to be better than him.
“You need to ask yourself what they did to get there, if possible, consult and ask them the procedures they followed to reach where they are and do them in your way to be better, that is development.
“Unfortunately, our players lack commitment on the pitch perhaps because we lack proper academies capable to produce skilled players from grassroot level,” Majaliwa noted.
He continued: “The idea to open doors and welcome foreign players has made Tanzania a better place for them who come to remind us that there is this and that in football.
“Our players lack commitment…I am a coach and I know that most of them are reluctant to engage in training sessions while we all know that football requires one to train a lot.” he said.
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He then urged the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to continue providing awareness to the public about the importance of having foreign players in the league.
“Aside that, thrive to establish academies…the ministry should create measures to entice private sector to establish academies for specific sporting disciplines like football, basketball, athletics and many others.
“Through that, we will be able to promote sports and ensure that the established academies are being closely monitored to assess their efficiency,” he said.
On his part, TFF president Wallace Karia also cemented that the issue of attracting foreign players is very important as it helps a lot to intensify the level of competition.
“In order to keep scaling up the ladders internationally,we deserve to have massive competition from our players and those from abroad while at the same time, encouraging our players to cross the borders and get the exposure of playing outside the country,” he said.
It is true that foreign players offer challenges to the domestic ones, and this makes the latter put more efforts in training, discipline inside and outside pitches and show their worthiness in different matches by high performances on the pitch.
