Mapinduzi Cup groups, fixture released

ZANZIBAR Football Association (ZFA) has revealed the groups and fixture of the annual Mapinduzi Cup, which will kick off from December 30th, this year, to January 13th, next year.


The tournament is part of the celebrations to mark the 54th anniversary of Zanzibar Revolution to climax on January 12th, next year. Zanzibar Revolution anniversary celebrations every year involves various activities including football tournament dubbed as ‘Mapinduzi Cup,’ which involves local and international teams which are invited by the ZFA.

According to the fixture released by ZFA, the over two week long tournament will involve ten teams from Zanzibar, Tanzania Mainland and one guest team from Uganda. The tournament has been divided into two groups with each group comprising five teams.

Group A comprise the tournament’s defending champions Azam FC and first runner up Simba, Jamhuri, Taifa Jang’ombe and URA from Uganda. It is considered as a group of ‘death’.

According to the fixture, Azam and Simba will launch their campaigns by facing Jamhuri and Uganda’s URA respectively in their first challenge in match day three of the group stage on January 2.

Azam and Simba will face each other on January 6 in a match which will be a repeat of proviso edition’s final, in which Azam won 1-0. Group B has Mainland champions Young Africans, JKU, Mlandege, Zimamoto and Shaba.

Yanga will commence their campaign against JKU challenge on January 1st, whereby another match will be between Shaba and Mlandege to be played earlier on the day.

On the opening day of the tournament, JKU will battle it out with Shaba, Jamhuri will play against Taifa Jang’ombe, whereas Zimamoto will face Mlandege in the official opening match of the tournament at the Amani Stadium in Zanzibar.

The group stage will be completed on January 8 whereby two top teams from each groups will cruise into the semi finals stage. In the first semis, winner of group A will face the runner up of group B on January 10th at the Amani Stadium.

Whereas on the same day and venue group B the winner will play against group A runner up in the battle for a slot into the final, which will be staged on January 13th.