A former captain of the Tanzanian national football team, Leodegar Tenga is one of the most respected football administrators in the region; his love and passion for the game endearing him to many.
He was elected to head the Tanzanian Football Federation (TFF) in 2005 after serving as secretary general for two years between 1988-1990. He was also appointed as the member of the Sports Council between 1990 and 2002 and was their vice chairman between 1990 -2002.
In 2007 Tenga was elected for a four year term as President of Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) and just recently he was elected in the CAF executive committee and is also a member of FIFA’s technical study Group (TSC).
Professionally, Tenga is a mechanical engineer and the Managing Director of Land Rover, Tanzania.
SuperSport.com’s Collins Okinyo had a lengthy chat with the man charged with running football in the region on issues around the game, his aspirations and goals.
SuperSport.com: Do you envisage Tanzania making it to the African Cup of Nations after an absence of over two decades?
Tenga: Let me say that like many other countries in the region Tanzania has struggled. We have done poorly and we have got a job to do to qualify. Uganda is currently doing very well in the region compared to all of us. But we have not given up hope because there are a lot of activities going on to help rectify the situation.
Investing in the youth and investing in infrastructure is very important and we should do more to ensure our teams have proper youth teams and structures like having the under 14, under 17, and under 20 youth teams.
SuperSport.com: What are some of the things that should be done to change the situation you have talked about?
Tenga: Elite clubs should have proper development structures meaning we need investors as we need to do more in terms of attracting sponsors.
SuperSport.com: As CECAFA do you feel you have done enough to build good relationship with stakeholders that include Sponsors and Government?
Tenga: Yes we have tried to build a close relationship with our stakeholders that include the our sponsors and the government by engaging them in all areas.
Our policy is to build close relationship with sponsors whom we respect a lot and to have a sponsor consistently you need to be open and transparent with them at all times and make them part of your plans so that they can feel they also own the process.
SuperSport.com: Talking of engaging the Government how are you doing this and do you feel you are getting the help you need from them?
Tenga: We have to put the government close to us because you cannot talk about youth football without talking about schools and it’s the Government that runs the schools.
Rwanda is a great example. It may be a small country but they can now send a team to the youth world cup and they have also hosted top FIFA youth tourneys twice. That means that the Government of President Kagame has invested heavily.
Rwanda started investing money in football in the late 90’s and now the results are there for everyone to see and this massive investment has paid off dearly that’s why at CECAFA we are very proud of Rwanda. Yes the venture in terms of money may not be profitable but in terms of football development it is enormous.
SuperSport.com: Tanzania has of late really improved in the FIFA rankings under your leadership. What are you doing right?
continue with the interview at supersport.com
source: http://www.wavuti.com/4/post/2011/07/supersports-qa-with-cecafa-president-leodegar-tenga.html#ixzz1RaNYLwAx
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