The Confederation of African Football, CAF has shifted the Champions League play-off tie between Simba and Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca to Cairo’s Petrosport Stadium on May 28.
Tanzania Football Federation’s information officer Boniface Wambura confirmed of the latest development of the play-off that was earlier rumoured to be staged in Sudan.
The match is played on neutral ground with Egyptian Football Association, EFA, as the host of the teams.
Winners of the match will cruise into the Champions league’s lucrative last eight.
The match in Cairo will be for 90 minutes duration and in an event of a stalemate the teams would straight resort to penalty shootouts tie-breaker.
CAF has assigned EFA to host the contingent of the two teams through providing airport transfers to their reserved hotels for accommodation.
Other costs for the match will be borne by football federations of the countries where the teams hail.
CAF has said each team would be responsible to cater for its own return flight tickets and accommodation reservations.
EFA would assist in locating hotels of the team’s choice and plan ahead reservations. Costs pertaining to the match officials will be equally borne by football associations of the two teams.
Gate collection to be realised from the match would be equally divided into the coffers of the two playing teams.
Simba and Wydad Casablanca meet in the scheduled play-off after Democratic Republic of Congo’s TP Mazembe were disqualified from the Champions League last eight stage for fielding an ineligible player during the second round match against Simba.
During the first leg match between Simba and TP Mazembe played at the Stade de la Kenya in Lubumbashi on March 20, the host side fielded an Xavier Bessala Bakungu whose transfer was eventually found to be incomplete.
Simba lodged a petition against TP Mazembe for the registration flaw as Mazembe went on to win both legs by 6-3 goal aggregate to date Wydad Casablanca.
While CAF was processing Simba’s petition, TP Mazembe, who bagged two back to back Champions League titles, edged Wydad Casablanca by 2-1 goals aggregate to romp into the last eight stage.
By the time CAF was making the fixture for the last eight league, it was when CAF decided in favour of Simba with subsequent disqualification of TP Mazembe.
Simba have been busy training in preparation for the Cairo play off since last week as they summoned players and their newly acquired Ugandan coach Moses Basena.
