Embattled Taifa Stars attacker Mrisho Ngassa is sweating to know whether he will be eligible to play for Young Africans in the Community Shield match against Azam on Saturday.
Mrisho Ngassa
He is waiting for his fate to be determined by the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Legal, Ethics and Players Status Committee, which sits in Dar es Salaam on Friday. Initially, the committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to deliberate on the objections and make a decision but the meeting was postponed to Friday.
The committee will make final judgment on which colours (red/white or yellow/green) the diminutive winger should don next season, after his name appeared in list of players recruited by both Simba and their bitter rivals Yanga.
Both Dar es Salaam giants are claiming to have rights to use him in the 2013/14 Mainland’s Vodacom Premier League season, which will be curtain raised by Saturday’s Community Shield encounter at the National Stadium.
Only eligible players will be allowed to take to the field on Saturday to honour the traditional Community Shield match and Ngassa is definitely desperate to be engaged in this one.
In a dramatic twist of events, Simba unveiled Ngassa in absentia at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Saturday during their annual ‘Simba Day’ in which the team paraded it’s newly recruited players as well as those who have been retained in the squad.
The Msimbazi Street lads marked their special day with a pre-season international friendly match against Uganda’s SC Villa in which they won 4-1. Simba are claiming that Ngassa, who spent a season long loan at their club from Azam FC, had entered into a yearlong contract that was meant to start immediately after his loan move had expired.
Ngassa left Simba in the cold immediately after last season’s league in May and has since been in Yanga camp, where it is reported that he has signed a two-year deal and has already been engaged in a number of pre-season friendly matches.
He even scored a stunning opener for Yanga when they thumped SC Villa 4-1 on Sunday. Ngassa has since insisted that he will call it quit if the TFF committee endorses him to play for Simba, instead of Yanga — a club he claimed to have an affection with.
Simba, though, have suggested that even when Ngassa is endorsed to play for them he will hardly have an opportunity to play and all they wanted was a 160m/- compensation from Yanga for contract termination and they will let the player go because he was not committed to their team.
However, reports within the TFF gives Yanga an upper hand to win the tug-of-war because it is claimed that the Jangwani Street outfit have submitted a contract plus Ngassa’s information form signed by the player while Simba have a contract only, which makes this case easy to decide.
Further details indicate that Ngassa was playing for Simba on loan and the TFF rules and regulations prohibit a club to enter into a contract with a player who is already tied to another club. Ngassa’s contract with Azam, who were the owners of the player, expired since May.
In another development, the TFF Information Officer, Boniface Wambura said all is set for the Community Shield match on Saturday. He said the match will kick off at 4:30 pm and will be decided on penalties if it ends in any draw after regulation time.
Ten per cent of the gate revenue will be channeled to SOS orphanage centre in Dar es Salaam. Ticket will be available at 30,000 and 20,000 for VIP A and B respectively, while those for VIP C will cost 15,000/-. Orange seats will go for 10,000/- and 7,000/- for blue seats.
By FATMA ABDU, Tanzania Daily News
