The Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) has banned Tanzanian side Yanga Africans for three years and fined them $35,000 for failing to honour their third place play-off match against Simba in the Kagame cup club championship that climaxed in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.

This was confirmed in a press release signed by Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye and copied to Times Sport.

The Organizing committee of the two-week tournament met in Dar es Salaam after the aborted match and found Yanga guilty of forfeiting the match and putting the game of football into disrepute.

"Cecafa has recommended further sanctions from TFF (Tanzania Football Federation) and have jointly written to CAF for extended sanctions beyond the region.

"Yanga boycotted the match, citing a misunderstanding between the club and the local federation (TFF)-an issue that Cecafa could not tolerate,” the release read in part.

The ban will run for the period the club has qualified to represent Tanzania in the continental club competition and will only be allowed to participate after paying the full fine.

According to Musonye, the organizing committee ruled that there was no room for appeal by Yanga and warned the club of further sanctions if they fail to observe the ban and pay the fine. 

"The organizing committee further recommended to TFF to impose severe sanctions against Yanga leadership for sabotaging Cecafa and the competition as a whole.

"Cecafa will still quantify the losses and the damage the unsporting behaviour the club has caused the Council and report the matter to the General Assembly for further sanctions in November in Uganda,” concludes the press release.

The punishment is the most severe Cecafa has imposed a member club. Yanga becomes the third team to be punished during the course of this year’s championship. Simba (Tz) and Miembeni (Zanzibar) are the others.

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