Local boxers miss out on world meet

TANZANIA will not be represented in the World Boxing Championship slated for Chicago after the country's boxing federation failed to raise 6,300 US dollars needed to send at least two boxers.

The President of Boxing Federation of Tanzania (BFT), Shabaan Mintanga, blamed their official sponsor, Easy Finance, for their misery.

"Whoever we approached for sponsorship told us that we have Easy Finance, yet we haven't signed any contract with them," Mintaga lamented.

Easy Finance's 50m/- sponsorship was unveiled with a bang about some months ago with its managers expressing delight and pride for supporting boxing.

However, Mintaga said these sponsors have not disbursed any amount to the federation so far, apart from eight tickets worth 11m/- they provided for boxers who competed in a boxing tournament in Sri-Lanka.

The Chief Executive Officer of Easy Finance, Isaac Kasaga, denied the claims, saying they had spent 21m/- on BFT so far.

"Our agreement was for every month to spend 2m/- for two years, but we were ready to help them in case of any emergency," said Kasaga.

Mintanga said they were going to return two tickets they had received from the Tanzania Olympic Committee.

"The tickets were not enough, more money was needed for accommodation and allowances. Staying in Chicago requires 40 US dollars per night and for the two boxers, it would cost us 1200 US dollars which the association could not raise," said Mintaga.

He said BFT will be fined 8,000 dollars for withdrawing and that the country's chances of competing in next year's Olympic Games suffered a major blow since the Chicago games also served as qualifiers for the Olympic Games.

The competition will start on November 23 in Chicago and it is already ready even if the federation gets sponsors now.