The football body seems not to care when and how best to deliver ruling of the cases. To TFF, time has never been an important element when it comes to organising its disciplinary and appeals committees.
Not that they cannot make quick decisions, no, because there are cases where the body has made quick and decisive decisions much to the surprise of the football fraternity. However in other cases, the soccer watchdog has kept decisions under the carpet for months.
A good example is the recent ruling of a case involving an abandoned Federation Cup semi-final clash between Young Africans and Coastal Union. That case was resolved within a week a speed that was astonishing to pundits especially when it is compared to a case involving Azam Football Club’s player Erasto Nyoni who somehow played in a premiership match even though he was under suspension.
The incident occurred back in September 2015 when Mbeya City visited Azam to play their first leg game of the Mainland premiership. Ruling for the case only came out last week that is 7 months down the road. It is mind boggling as to what actually transpired to delay the case for such a long time especially for such a straight forward issue that one would imagine could have been resolved in but a couple of hours.
Is the TFF too busy to call its committees and resolve football issues on time or is this just a show of complacency because the case does not involve any of the two premiership stalwarts, Simba and Young Africans? Is the TFF working for these two clubs or the rest in the premiership fleet?
Fielding of a suspended player is one of the simplest and easiest cases to resolve as it does not need searching for evidence because the suspension is known and the player was seen on the field without any official lift of the suspension.
While the country is making efforts to promote soccer in the country, this kind of ambiguity and indecision undermines these efforts and shrouds the game’s potential.
The TFF secretariat should not think we are disputing its decision to dock Azam FC three points for the offence rather, the bottom line here is the duration taken to come to the decision particularly at this stage when the premiership is coming to an end with the title chase down to the wire.
Such delays in dealing with cases involving premier soccer league affairs highlight either complacency or incompetence by the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB). Also, despite the excessive delay in delivering the ruling, the football fraternity has neither apologised nor given any reason to substantiate the awkward delay.
It is safe to conclude that both TFF and TPLB are taking matters in their own hands without due regard to the football fraternity they are serving.
ends
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