A few days ago, Simba SC won the 2025 Team of the Year award presented by the National Sports Council (BMT) to institutions and individuals who performed well during the year.
Simba earned the award after reaching the CAF Confederation Cup final in 2025.
However, the award sparked reactions from Yanga’s Head of Information and Communications, Ali Kamwe, who questioned the criteria used to hand Simba the honor.
Through his social media page, Kamwe reminded followers how Yanga won the same award in 2023 after achieving several major successes both domestically and internationally.
According to Kamwe, Yanga received the award that year for:
- Reaching the CAF Confederation Cup Final (CAFCC)
- Winning the Tanzania Mainland Premier League title
- Winning the Azam Federation Cup
Kamwe expressed surprise over what he described as a sudden change in the award selection criteria.
“In 2023, the reasons were explained clearly in front of all stakeholders. Today we are being told that we lack education and do not understand the criteria,” Kamwe questioned.
He further argued that the situation shows domestic achievements such as league titles and local cup trophies are no longer being given significant importance compared to reaching the final stages of continental competitions.
Last season, Yanga won every available domestic trophy including the Community Shield, Premier League, Mapinduzi Cup, Muungano Cup, and the CRDB Federation Cup. However, those achievements were still not enough for Wananchi to win the award ahead of rivals Simba, whose main success during the season was reaching the CAF Confederation Cup final.
