Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) narrowly survived a rare scare on conceding defeat in its constitution amendment voting as the majority of Congress delegates voted in favour of the proposals.
There was tension among football stakeholders as some TFF member associations led by Kagera Regional Football Association (KRFA) voiced against the amendments and strongly campaigned for shooting them down but TFF under its president Leodegar Tenga has finally emerged victorious.
However, matters were not all smooth as the ‘Yes’ vote was just just two percent (68) above the required absolute majority mark of 66 percent (2/3) as the TFF constitutions stipulates.
Therefore, despite the victory, 32 percent of the voters opposed TFF proposals, a fact that will reasonably not ring positively to the national football governing body’s leadership.
However, in his statement yesterday, TFF Information Officer Boniface Wambura said the federation was thankful to all delegates – the supporters and those who opposed – noting that everyone exercised a democratic right.
“A total of 103 congress delegates participated in voting, 70 members voted for the amendment while 33 voted against it,” he said.
Wambura noted that 46 of those who supported were delegated from regional associations, 13 delegates from affiliate associations and 11 from Premier League clubs.
The voting has culminated the process needed to amend the TFF constitution so as to bring on board the club licensing item, the formation of an election appeals body and omitting the post of second vice president introduced in 2004.
Voting was conducted through dispatched and returned, signed forms explaining the matter to be voted upon, and signed by the relevant delegate. They were received by the TFF executive committee, and having summed up what was contained in the returned forms – known in legal procedure as circular resolution – they added up the ‘yeah’ and ‘nay’ votes.
In the aftermath of the tally the TFF executive committee then revealed that it had garnered 68 votes, sufficient to return to CAF as victory of its constitution amendment plea, at its sitting in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
“Following the constitution amendment, the executive committee will meet again on December 23 to amend election regulations and appoint the appeals committee members,” Wambura told reporters.
TFF general congress has been pushed to February 23 and 24 to provide ample time to TFF president Tenga to send the customary 60-day notice to congress delegates.
Mid last month, Alex Mgongolwa, the chairman of the TFF committee for constitution, legal affairs, ethics and players’ status, declared that the general assembly would be held on February 16 and 17 next year. The statement attracted criticism from some stakeholders on the ground that Mgongolwa’s committee had no mandate to make such decisions as the mandate is in the hands of executive committee members.
The amendments would now pave way for TFF to effect directives from the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) through the Confederation of African Football (CAF) especially on club licensing and formation of an independent elections appeals committee.
Due to the stated lack of funds to host two general meetings, one for the assembly and the other to amend the constitution, TFF decided to amend its constitution though a ‘circular resolution.’
TFF prepared the document that was sent to members who had to approve it so as to allow the amendments. Two associations (Kagera and Coast regions) went on air to disagree about the process.
The two claimed that the TFF executive body had used the directives as a pretext to extent their leadership tenure which was due to expire on December 13 as the current leadership was elected into office on December 14, 2008.
