The Tanzania Mainland Premier League () is the top-level professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and is administered by the

Tanzania Football Federation The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) ( sw, Shirikisho la Mpira wa Miguu Tanzania), previously the Football Association of Tanzania, is the governing body of football in Tanzania. It oversees operations of the Tanzania national football team, Ta ...

History

The league was first organised in 1921 in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

. By 1929, it had six participants. In the 1930s, it included street teams such as Arab Sports (Kariakoo) and New Strong Team (Kisutu), made up mainly of Arabs and Africans respectively. The Sudanese community also had its own team, though it included other ethnicities as well. It joined the league in 1941. Other contemporary teams included the Khalsas, an exclusively Sikh team, and the Ilala Staff, a team with Ilalan residents. In 1942, clubs from public institutions such as the Government School, Post Office, Railways SC, King's African Rifles SC, Police SC and Medical Department started to dominate the league. However, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, most teams were disbanded, many European players stopped taking part in the league, and their clubs, which included Gymkhana Club, Police, King's African Rifles, Railways, eventually withdrew. They were replaced, from the 1940s on, by African street teams such as

Young Africans Young Africans Sports Club, commonly referred as Yanga is a Tanzanian professional football club based in Jangwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Founded in 1935, the club play their home games at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium. Nicknamed "Yanga" (Yo ...

(Yanga) and Sunderland (known as Old Boys in 1942 and later to become

Simba Simba is a fictional character and the protagonist of Disney's ''The Lion King (franchise), The Lion King'' franchise. Introduced in the 1994 film ''The Lion King'', Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation's List of Walt Disney Anim ...

), as well as the Goan's Club manned by

Goans Goans ( kok, गोंयकार, Romi Konkani: , pt, Goeses) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, and ...

, and the Agha Khan Club by

Ismaili Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...

Khojas The Khojas ( sd}; gu, ખોજા, hi, ख़ोजा) are a mainly Nizari Isma'ili Shia community of people originating in Gujarat, India. Derived from the Persian Khwaja, a term of honor, the word Khoja is used to refer to Lohana Rajp ...

. The Sudanese team broke up in the mid-1940s. From this period onwards, Yanga and Sunderland gradually became the most popular and strongest clubs in Dar es Salaam. Yanga, founded in 1938, entered the first division of the league soon afterwards and won four major cups in 1942. Sunderland joined the first division soon after Yanga, and won four important trophies in 1946. By 1955, the Dar es Salaam league had 38 registered clubs. It became the "National League" by 1965, incorporating most of the major teams in Tanzania. The name was later changed to the "First Division Soccer League" and to the "Premier League" in 1997. Tanzania Breweries became the sponsor of the championship, after which the League was called the Tanzania Breweries League (TBL). The contract with Breweries was terminated in 2001 after a sponsor conflict with the Tanzania Football Association. In 2002, a contract was signed with the telephone company

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include n ...

, which lasted until 2009, after which it was re-signed the same year.

Competition format

Competition

The Tanzanian Premier League (TPL) follows a typical double round-robin format; each team playing the other twice, home and away. Winners of each match earn three points, a draw earns a point for both teams, while a loss earns zero points.

Promotion & Relegation

The bottom two placed teams are automatically relegated to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, and are replaced by the winners and runner's up from the Championship. The third and fourth worst ranked teams enter a play-off with the 3rd and 4th placed teams from the First Division.

International Competitions

As a member of CAF, teams based in Tanzania compete in the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...

and

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football club competition established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners' Cup and organi ...

. Recent positive performances by TPL clubs in continental competitions has seen Tanzania rise in the

CAF 5-Year Ranking The CAF 5-Year Ranking system is used by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to determine the number of clubs that each member association may enter its club football competitions; the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. ...

. As a result, more teams from the league have had the opportunity to compete on the continental stage.

CAF Champions League

The league champion qualifies for the CAF Champions League of the following season. Starting in the 2021-22 season, the second placed team from the previous season has also qualified for the CAF CL.

CAF Confederation Cup

Since the 2015–16 season, the winner of the

Tanzania FA Cup The Tanzania FA Cup (also called the Azam Sports Federation Cup) is the top knockout tournament of the Tanzanian football. Previously, the Nyerere Cup was the top knockout tournament. It was created in 1974 and was contested by teams from both ...

has qualified for the

CAF Confederations Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football club competition established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners' Cup and organi ...

. This qualification berth had previously been only awarded to the runner-up in the Premier League. From the 2021-22 season onwards, the champions of the FA Cup and the third-placed team in the Premier League have also qualified for the tournament.

Clubs

Starting from the 2018–19 season, the league is composed of 20 teams, which was further lowered to 18 in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

and 16 in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Champions

Wins by year

Previous champions are: *1965:

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

(Dar es Salaam) *1966: Sunderland (Dar es Salaam) *1967: Cosmopolitans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1968:

Young Africans S.C. Young Africans Sports Club, commonly referred as Yanga is a Tanzanian professional football club based in Jangwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Founded in 1935, the club play their home games at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium. Nicknamed "Yanga" (Y ...

(Dar es Salaam) *1969: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1970: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1971: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1972: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1973:

Simba S.C. Simba Sports Club is a football club based in Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam Tanzania, Founded in 1936, the club, which broke away from another Tanzania Giants, Dar Young Africans was named Queens, in honor of her Majesty, the Queen of England. The C ...

(Dar es Salaam) *1974: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1975: Mseto S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1976: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1977: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1978: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1979: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1980: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1981: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1982: Pan African S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1983: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1984:

KMKM Nhc Kikosi Maalum cha Kuzuia Magendo Sports Club, or simply KMKM SC is a football club from Zanzibar based in Unguja. Achievements *Tanzanian Premier League : 1 :: 1984. * Zanzibar Premier League : 8 :: 1984, 1986, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2021, 2 ...

(Zanzibar) *1985: Majimaji F.C. (Ruvuma) *1986: Majimaji F.C. (Ruvuma) *1987: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1988: Coastal Union S.C. (Tanga) *1989:

Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centre ...

(Zanzibar) *1990: Pamba SC (Mwanza) *1991: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1992: Malindi S.C. (Zanzibar) *1993: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1994: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1995: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1996: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1997: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *1998: Majimaji F.C. (Ruvuma) *1999:

Prisons A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

(Mbeya) *2000: Young Africans S.C. (Dar Es Salaam) *2001: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2002: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2003: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2004: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2005: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2006: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2007: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) ini-league*2007–08: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2008–09: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2009–10: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2010–11: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2011–12: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2012–13: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2013–14: Azam F.C. (Dar es Salaam) *2014–15: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2015–16: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2016–17: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2017–18: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2018–19: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2019–20: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

: Simba S.C. (Dar es Salaam) * 2021–22: Young Africans S.C. (Dar es Salaam)

Top scorers

Hat tricks

* ⁴ Player scored 4 goals * ⁵ Player scored 5 goals

References

External links

tff.or.tz
League website at association's website

League standings & results

{{Football in Tanzania Football leagues in Tanzania

Sports leagues established in 1965 1965 establishments in Tanzania