Zanzibar pays price for disorganisation

Salum Bausi, Zanzibar Heroes head coach

Zanzibar soccer team’s head coach Salum Bausi unexpectedly disappointed reporters here after boycotting to attend the post match interview at the Afraha Stadium here. 

Bausi scoffed at the CECAFA tournament organizers for not setting up the final group stage game simultaneously.


He claimed that home side Kenya knew the result of the first group game between Ethiopia and South Sudan with the later winning by two goals to book their quarter-final slot. 

Bausi said the games should have been played simultaneously to avoid giving advantage to any of the group teams like the way it is used in most of high-profile tournaments across the world.

 Zanzibar, who needed a draw to advance into the last eight, conceded one goal in each half to crash out of the tournament. 

When he was requested by media organizers to attend the post match interview, he never cooperated as he left reporters at crossroads. He is so far the first coach to have disappointed reporters in the ongoing tournament.

 Bausi, who led his team into the semi-finals of the previous edition staged in Kampala last year, this time completely failed to repeat the feat.  It has been the worst ever performance for the Zanzibar side in the past four years.
Bausi, backed by the Zanzibar Football Association, now rue the adamancy of leaving behind experienced players at the expense of performing well in the tournament.

For over one year now there has been a tug of war between three potential players of Zanzibar team who never returned the third-place play off winning prize money to the tune of $10,000 which they divided among themselves in Kampala.

The ZFA has turned its back to the trio who refused to hand back the money. The trio include defenders Nadir Haroub, Nassor Masoud and goalkeeper Mwadini Ali. 

However, Bausi, who would have pressed hard for their inclusion into the team ahead of boarding the flight to Nairobi, was also uninterested to call them.
Zanzibar also missed the services of midfielder Abdulhalim Humoud who defected the training camp at home for personal reasons that irked coach Bausi. 

Besides missing the trio, Zanzibar team has also been plagued by injuries that rendered playmaker Khamis Mcha and striker Selemani Selembi out of their usual vibrancy to severely affect their team’s performance throughout the group stage matches. 

 Meanwhile, the Group A ranking has been decided by a toss of coin ahead of yesterday’s group B matches at Afraha Stadium as Kenya and Ethiopia have tied in all respects at the end of the preliminaries.

Both teams ended the group stage unbeaten with seven points, scoring five and conceding one goal. 

The match involving between them played during the opening day ended in barren draw.

 The tournament has seen four teams of South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Zanzibar booking early flight home. 

The rest of the eight teams are hosts Kenya, Ethiopia, holders Uganda, Sudan, Mainland Tanzania, Zambia and either Rwanda or Burundi.
All the quarter-final matches will be played in Mombasa this weekend.