Tanzanian football league system

Football in Tanzania
A football match in Tanzania.
CountryTanzania
Governing bodyTanzania Football Federation
National teamsTaifa Stars
Twiga Stars
Club competitions
International competitions

The Tanzania Football Federation[1][2] is the governing body mandated to run The sport of football in Tanzania. It oversees the national football team, Premier League,the Championship, First League,Regional Champions League,Youth U20 League and the Youth U15 League. It is also in charge of Serengeti Lite Women's Premier League.[3]

Association football is the most popular sport in Tanzania. Approximately 25% of Tanzanians are considered football fans.[4]

League system

The Tanzanian league football pyramid uses a promotion and relegation system. The champions of the nation's top level of football, Tanzanian Premier League (Ligi Kuu Tanzania Bara) qualify to play in the following season's CAF Champions League. The bottom 3 teams are relegated to the Championship.

Level League Clubs Promotion Relegation
1 Tanzanian Premier League
Ligi Kuu Tanzania
16 NA relegates 2 teams automatically, 1 goes to relegation playoffs
2 Championship
Ligi Daraja la Kwanza
16 promotes 2 teams automatically, 4 go to promotion playoffs relegates 2 team automatically, 4 go to relegation playoffs
3 First League
Ligi Daraja la Pili
24 - 4 groups of 6 teams promotes 3 teams automatically relegates 3 teams automatically
4 Regional Champions League
Ligi ya Mabingwa wa Mikoa
28 - 4 groups of 7 teams promotes 3 teams automatically NA
5 Youth U20 League
Ligi ya Vijana U20
6 Youth U15 League
Ligi ya Vijana U15

Football stadiums in Tanzania

Stadiums with a capacity of 30,000 or higher are included.

# Stadium Location Capacity Home Team(s) Notes
1 National Stadium Tanzania[citation needed] Dar es Salaam 60,000 National team, Simba SC, Young Africans FC
2 CCM Kirumba Stadium Mwanza 35,000 Mbao FC, Alliance Schools FC, Pamba F.C., Toto African
3 Kambarage Stadium Shinyanga 30,000 Kahama United
4 Jamhuri Stadium Dodoma Dodoma 30,000 JKT Ruvu Stars
5 Gombani Stadium Chake-Chake 30,000
6 Maji-Maji Stadium Songea 30,000

Support

Twitter research from 2015 found that the most popular English Premier League club in Tanzania was Manchester United, with 25% of Tanzanian Premier League fans following the club, closely followed by Arsenal (22%) and Chelsea (17%).[5]

Attendances

The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:

Season League average Best club Best club average
2024-25 2,510 Young Africans 10,176
2023-24 2,408 Young Africans 9,460

Sources: League pages on Wikipedia

References

  1. ^ "BBC SPORT | Football | African | Trautmann honour echoed in Tanzania". BBC News. 2004-11-02. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  2. ^ Muga, Emmanuel (2013-07-20). "BBC Sport - Trautmann mourned in Tanzania too". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  3. ^ Muga, Emmanuel. "BBC Sport – Tanzanian FA to "focus on football development"". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  4. ^ "(Soccer) Football Fans by Country 2025". 4 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Which is Africa's favourite Premier League team?". BBC News. 2015-08-07. Retrieved 2024-10-18.

Further reading