Simba SC to play three friendlies in Turkey

The squad will be in the European nation for three weeks, with both new and old players for the side set to take part in the preparations.

Simba SC has this week begun to announce new signings for the new season with players like Che Malone Fondoh from Cameroon's Coton Sports, Willy Onana from APR of Rwanda and Fabrice Ngoma who terminated his contract with Al Hilal of Sudan expected to be introduced.

The outfit opted out of extending contracts for nine players whilst Kenyan center-back Joash Onyango who survived the purge at the end of last season is expected to be part of the team.

Roberto Oliveira-coached Simba SC players reported back on Monday and underwent various medical tests with more expected to undergo the same tests on Tuesday to kick off the pre-season training.

While in Turkey, Simba SC plans to play friendly matches against three unnamed Turkish clubs.

Azam FC, the third-place finisher in the NBC Premier League last season, will be heading to Tunisia for training camp.

The ice cream makers, who have been very busy on the transfer market, were set to report to training on Tuesday this week to kick-start preparations for the upcoming season.

Azam FC spokesperson Hasheem Ibwe revealed that they are targeting to play high-profile friendlies while there.

Ibwe disclosed: "We are going to a country where there is a similarity in weather and perhaps a little of the landscape of the area where we come from, it is also an environment that we are used to in the African competitions."

"In Tunisia, there are teams like Esperance with whom we have good relations, we are going to have a friendly match with them, and they are also preparing for next season," he pointed out.

Ibwe noted: "It is easy to evaluate ourselves once we have played a friendly match against Esperance, we (might) make mistakes here and there and if we go to the CAF Confederation Cup we should take this approach."

"We believe that while we are in Tunisia, we will find many teams (whose quality matches) opponents that we will meet in the CAF Confederation Cup," Ibwe said.