Hours before the Serengeti boys step out for their first game in the Under 17 AFCON to take place on home soil, the Chairperson of IPP Companies Mr Reginald Mengi has promised to give 20 Millions Tanzanian Shillings to each member of the team should they win their opening two games and a Car to each of the players if they succeed to qualify for this year’s Under 17 World Cup in Brazil.
Mr Reginald Mengi is a Tanzanian business Tycoon in East Africa and the Patron of the Serengeti boys team,he made his declaration before the team’s training at the national Stadium this Saturday.
Tanzania enter this Edition of the AFCON for only the second time in their history with objective to perform better than they did 2 years ago in Gabon.
This year’s AFCON tournament doubles as the Under 17 World Cup qualifiers and the Serengeti boys under the guidance of Coach Oscar Mirambo have the task to push above the third position in Group B in 2017 to enable them qualify for the World Cup.
Tanzania beat Angola by 2-1 and held eventual winners Mali to a virgin draw in 2017 to finish third in their group with the same number of points as second-placed Niger in that edition of the competition.
The best two teams in each of the two Polls in this year’s competition will qualify for the World Cup.
“It’s true that I was a part of the technical staffs in the previous edition of AFCON U17 in Gabon but we went there to learn because it was the first time for us to participate”.
“This time we have no excuse if we fail.We have been preparing for this competition for more than a year now,we have had recent friendlies against Guinea and Cameroon to perfectly adapt to the different styles.We are optimistic to perform well and get good results”.– Mirambo told the media in his pre-match submissions on Saturday.
Tanzania played a virgin draw in their opening game against Mali in the last tournament.They will face two times winners(2001 & 2007) Nigeria in their opening game this Sunday at the National Stadium in Dar Es Salaam.Nigeria is coming back to the tournament after missing the 2017 edition.
It is not the first time Mr Reginald Mengi is making a huge offer to the boys,he previously gave each member of the team 1 million Tanzanian Shelling when the team won the COSAFA Invitational tournament in December 2018.
