TFF can do something, in registering Al Hilal for Mainland PL

Its proper name is Al Hilal Omdurman, a city on the other side of the Nile River, facing the capital Khartoum, thus basically it is a wing of the capital, and like other professional groups.

There was some explicit report in different directions, one about Al Hilal moving to Rwanda, and another about the coach, Florent Ibenge denying the report that he was moving to Kigali-based APR FC.

Without visiting social media pages, it was not easy to check if the reports about Al Hilal playing in the Rwanda Premier League were merely an offshoot of the APR shift for their head coach.

In a way that could have been a move by APR to obtain his services, which looks somewhat high flung given the fact that a far more endowed club like city giants Young Africans SC (Yanga) failed to retain head coach, Nasreddine Nabi.

The former Yanga coach and Ibenge are comparable in their professional standing, which is otherwise expressed as market value in exclusive Transfer Market terms.

Still, there is a problem with the Sudanese champions as it is entirely out of place to expect a reliable premier league tournament to kick off in Khartoum any time soon, but the coach is still there, and presumably most of the team, which also implies that their sponsors are ready to pursue a premier league challenge if they have some preliminaries okayed, despite that this is somewhat uncommon. 

What is regularly done is the club picking a foreign venue for tournament events if their proper city is unsafe, for instance Libyan, and Somali sides in recent years, momentary events.

Appearing in another country’s league system would be somewhat novel but not out of place.

Were it had not been mooted somewhere as a possible alternative for the giant Sudanese side, possibly no one would come up with that idea, but if some people have already started talking about it, whether in Sudan, Rwanda, or elsewhere, it implies it is something that is already in the air. It is an idea that can be examined not for its pros and cons but rather for its feasibility.

There are some good starting points for that sort of idea, namely that we are now in a global village where many of us are actual supporters of this or that club in a far-off country, and at times the proximity goes a wee bit too far to show affection.

One day a fairly big group of ‘patrons’ were watching Manchester City feature in a Premier League clash and, as the young women serving there are at ease with their customers, one of them asked a customer why ‘her husband’ Foden was not on the line-up!

Those with a traditionalist bent would find that nearly abhorrent but that is soccer.

There are visible cultural reasons why Al Hilal would feel at home in Tanzania, whether in the capital or any big regional center, for once, Rwanda may in diplomatic terms be more inclined to accept a premier league relocation, but it may not be the best choice.

The idea of Al Hilal adding to the top four list of Simba SC, Yanga, ‘Al Azam’, and Singida Fountain Gate is almost mouth-watering in flavour. By contrast, the Zanzibar league is weaker, and the Rwanda league is relatively so.

When it comes to location, it is easy to find either a spot or two where the side will feel at home in the nearby community, for instance, in the coastal zone, but undoubtedly also in Arusha, as it is multiethnic and accessible from various points in eastern Africa, even from Sudan for that matter. 

And admittedly it would add condiments to the premier league to make it even better and competitive, despite that some sort of rule adaptation would be needed regarding continental tournaments the next season.

It is something a bit easier to handle, like having three instead of two slots.

All these reasons might not push those in authority to put in feelers in that direction but those in charge of culture and tourism respectively would, if they put the matter to some brainstorming, find it useful in terms of publicity.

There was a time our Foreign Affairs ministry authorities tried to put in a word on the conflict there but ended with evacuating Tanzanians and some other foreigners stranded there. Indeed this would even be a foreign exchange earner, boosting local tourism,    So from the viewpoint of hypothesis that idea is plausible and worthwhile but it needs some imagination from premier league sides like Simba SC with whom the Omdurman side has a relationship.

The city side can work to build a consensus in the soccer federation so that it can be put across to policymakers, especially if the club sponsors will be able to put their fingers on a business sphere they can with some zeal move to sink in funds.

That would make the prospective stay here of several sponsoring company officials worthwhile, as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) makes several things easier to handle.