Mbeya City-like team launched in Arusha

THE Arusha City Council recently took out its basket, going into town to do a bit of shopping. On its way back, it had a whole football club in the bag, a squad which the council bought on a bargain, somewhat.

Like Mbeya City, the new football club which the council has just launched, will be whole owned and run by the City Council here. Apparently it conspicuously resembles the former Arusha Football Club (AFC), whose ailing state placed the club onto flea market ready to be purchased wholesale by any party that would care to give it a second glance.

The new ‘Arusha City SC, is just the first in the long list of other big and small clubs that the city plans to place under its wings. “We are ready to buy any team which may put itself up for sale,” maintained the Mayor, Kalisti Lazaro, adding that their target was to uplift soccer and other sporting activity in the urban center.

Lazaro was of the view that, Arusha deserved a better slot in sporting events than its current status in which it fails miserably in football and netball, though doing extremely well in more prestigious sports such as tennis, rugby and golf.

He explained that, the council has set aside such a budget but also will work with seven large local companies and firms as well as business persons operating in the city to ensure that, cash will not be a problem should a juicy team come along with a price tag within the next twelve months or so.

The Municipal Sports Officer, Benson Maneno admitted that Arusha was always the underdog when it came to football games and soccer clubs, but the city has just realized that if there was one area that it can make use of in order to promote itself, then this was through sports, especially the popular soccer.