TFF confirms annual meeting

TANZANIA Football Federation (TFF) has eventually announced to hold annual general meeting this weekend in Tanga after a postponement. Financial constraints forced the federation to call off the meeting which was to be held in December, last year at the same venue.

TFF’s information Officer Baraka Kizuguto unveiled in Dar es Salaam that the federation general meeting was postponed following the decision of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to freeze the federation’s accounts following a failure to pay over one billion shilling they owe the authority.

Kizuguto unveiled that the two day meeting will be held from March 12 to 13 at the Regal Naivera Hotel whereby some of agenda of the meeting include the approval of the 2016 budget, verification of the audit report and confirming report of implementation of Executive Committee, to name but a few.

According to Kizuguto, the two- day meeting will be finalised by laying a foundation stone at the centre for promoting and developing football talents to be established in Tanga.

Last year’s TFF general assembly failed to take place as planned following the decision of Ilala regional TRA office to freeze the federation’s bank accounts a month earlier, a move that came after the federation failed to pay 1.6 billion shillings debt.

TRA froze TFF bank accounts allegedly following the federation’s failure to pay the tax deductions from salaries of national soccer team, Taifa Stars, foreign coaches.

The debt was part of the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) payment of the three foreign coaches - Jan Poulsen, Kim Poulsen and Jacob Michelsen - hired by the federation and value added tax (VAT) on the game between Tanzania and Brazil in 2010.

After the decision by TRA, the federation held discussion with TRA and its accounts were released, but, unfortunately there were no cash as all the deposited money had been moved from the account to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), a situation that led to meeting cancelation of the meeting as they were no funds to facilitate the meeting.

Meanwhile Kagera-based referee, Jonesia Rukya, one of the country’s FIFA badge holder referees, is among the four officials appointed by Fifa to officiate the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifying matches.

According to TFF statement, Rukya joins three others from Kenya to take charge of the game between Egypt and Cameroon to be held between March 25, 26 and 27 in Cairo.

The three officials from Kenya are Carolyne Wanjala, who will be the central referee, assisted by Carolyne Kiles and Mary Njoroge while the match commissioner is Leah Annette Dabanga from South Africa.

The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be the 5th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the biennial international football championship contested by the under-17 national teams.

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