Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has announced sweeping leadership changes at the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB), signalling a shift in the management of the country’s top-flight league amid ongoing pressure over governance concerns.
In a statement issued on Friday, June 13, TFF revealed that TPLB Chairman Mr Steven Mnguto has formally tendered his resignation.
Concurrently, TFF President Mr Wallace Karia suspended the Board’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Almasi Kasongo.
No reasons were given for either move, but the developments come against the backdrop of sustained pressure—particularly from Young Africans SC (Yanga)—calling for a shake-up at the helm of the TPLB.
The demands arose in the aftermath of the disputed NBC Premier League fixture between Yanga and arch-rivals Simba SC, which has not been played since its postponement in March.
Yanga had linked their participation in a rescheduled derby to the removal of TPLB’s top leadership, a position they maintained even after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed their appeal on procedural grounds and referred the matter back to domestic mechanisms.
The leadership changes, though not explicitly tied to those demands, are widely seen as part of efforts to pave the way for reconciliation and restore normalcy ahead of the much-awaited Kariakoo Derby.
In a major development for Tanzanian football, the TPLB has now rescheduled the high-stakes clash between Yanga and Simba, which had originally been set for June 15, 2025.
The iconic fixture will now take place on June 25, 2025, at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam, with kickoff set for 11:00 PM.
The update was communicated through an official press release from the TPLB’s Media and Communications Department on June 13.
In the meantime, TFF is expected to announce interim leadership arrangements for TPLB, whose stability and credibility remain central to the smooth running of the league.
Stakeholders will be watching closely to see whether the recent changes will usher in deeper structural reforms or simply serve to ease tensions in the short term.
As the countdown to June 25 begins, the focus now shifts to whether these developments will finally bring closure to the prolonged standoff—and allow Tanzanian football’s most celebrated rivalry to be decided on the pitch.
