Israel Saria
The 2008/09 entertaining Mainland Premier league was being drafted on Friday with the newly-promoted Dar es Salaam`s Villa Squad facing off Simba at the inaugural match set at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
The mainland title holder, Young African, Yanga, will start defending their honour on Saturday by hosting Mbeya-based `adamant` Prison at the same ground.
Other matches scheduled for the same day are Mtibwa Sugar against Polisi Dodoma, Kagera Sugar Vs Polisi Morogoro while Toto Africans will host JKT.
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) have already selected other five grounds where the league will be played. These are Kaitaba Stadium (Bukoba), Jamhuri (Morogoro), Jamhuri (Dodoma), Sokoine (Mbeya) and Manungu (Morogoro).
The league is, however, expected to be more professional compared to the previous ones, after TFF imposed new regulations like dope testing for all players.
In the previous season, Prison, who finished third, managed to set an impressive record by staying at the league`s summit throughout the whole first leg matches before Yanga took the lead in the second leg.
It was a remarkable record since local soccer fans have for year’s witnessed the two mainland soccer giants; Archrivals Simba and Yanga dominate the race.
Villa Squad and Azam are the two new teams this season after the relegation of Ashanti and Coastal Union in the last season.
With the few remaining days before the race takes off, the focus of many local soccer fans is to see how the dominant Simba and Yanga will steer their campaign.
- SOURCE: Sunday Observer
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