Coach Hall to quit Azam

Azam head coach Stewart Hall will quit his role in charge of the ice cream makers at the end of this season.

The British tactician, who is at the Tanzanian side for this third spell, skipped training last Thursday after handing in a resignation letter but was convinced by club management to stay on until the Federation Cup final against newly crowned league champions Yanga.

Hall told supersport.com in an exclusive interview that, “I will not be in charge of Azam FC next season. My last game is the Federation Cup final against Yanga.”

Close sources revealed that, “It is not a secret that Hall has been frustrated by the continuous match fixing in Tanzania, something he feels has sabotaged his attempt to march the big guns in Yanga and Simba especially in trying to win the league title.”

Hall has failed to win the Vodacom Premier League title in all his three tenures at the helm of Azam including the 2010-2012 spell before he was replaced by Serbian Boris Bunjak for a few months.

Hall took over again in 2012 before leaving at the end of the 2012/2013 season with Cameroonian Joseph Omog taking over the icecream makers guiding them to the 2013/2014 league title.

Hall replaced Omog in 2015 and guided Azam to their first regional title after defeating Kenyan side Gor Mahia 2-0 to lift the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup titlebefore inspiring them to the round of 16 in the Caf Confederation Cup last month.

Azam defeated Esperance 2-1 in Dar es Salaam but fell to the North African giants 3-0 in Tunis in the absence of key players including Kipre Tche Tche, Serge Wawa, Shomari Kapombe and Jean Baptiste Mugiraneza with most critics deeming this as a failure for the club that has invested a lot of money in buying foreign players.

Azam will represent Tanzania in the 2017 Caf Confederation Cup with or without victory against Yanga in the Federation Cup later this month.

Hall’s side is second placed on the VPL table standings with 60 points from 28 games, eight points behind champions Yanga who have a game in hand and have 68 points.

Yanga were crowned the 2016 league champions with three games to spare following Azam’s 2-2 draw with JKT Ruvulast Wednesday and Simba’s shock loss to Mwadui FC on Sunday. Simba sit in third with 58 points from 27 games.