AFCON is our home call

TANZANIA: AFRICA is coming to Tanzania.

Not just to watch football. Not just to fill stadiums.

It is coming to experience a country, a people and a football culture. That is the real meaning of hosting the Africa Cup of Nations.

Tanzania will share the tournament with Kenya and Uganda, turning East Africa into the centre of African football.

The stadiums will provide the stage. The matches will provide the drama. But the tournament will be judged, too, by everything that happens beyond the touchlines.

A tournament begins long before the referee blows the first whistle.

It begins at the airport, when a tired traveller steps off a plane.

It continues with the immigration officer, the taxi driver, the hotel receptionist, the waiter, the police officer managing traffic and the stranger who stops to show a visitor the way.

For millions of people watching from across Africa and beyond, those encounters will become part of their picture of Tanzania.

That is why AFCON is bigger than football.

It is a test of our hospitality, our organisation and our ability to make a major international event work.

It is also an opportunity for hotels, restaurants, transport operators, retailers, tour companies and countless other businesses to introduce themselves to a much larger audience.

The opportunity is enormous. So is the responsibility.

Visitors should find airports that move efficiently, transport that is safe and reliable, hotels that deliver, restaurants that respect their customers and emergency services ready when required.

**ALSO READ: **CAF commends Tanzania’s preps for AFCON co-hosting saying it perfectly implements its directives

Traffic must move. Information must be easy to find. Public spaces must be clean. And the welcome must be genuine.

Football speaks many languages. So will the supporters arriving for AFCON. Swahili will make many of our East African guests feel at home.

But English, French and Portuguese will also be heard in our streets, hotels and stadiums. A visitor should not have to struggle to find a direction, a service or a helping hand.

This is where hosting a tournament becomes a national effort.

The government has a central role, but it cannot do everything.

The quality of AFCON will also be determined by the people who drive the taxis, run the hotels, serve the food, manage the roads, sell the merchandise and meet the visitors.

Every one of those encounters matters. CHAN gave us experience.

AFCON gives us a bigger stage. And a bigger stage demands more.

We should want supporters to leave Tanzania talking about the football, of course.

But we should also want them talking about the welcome, the organisation, the atmosphere and the people. Let the football create the memories.

Let Tanzania give them a reason to remember where they were made. Africa is coming. Tanzania, this is our home call. As our founding president, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere once said: “It can be done. Play your part.”

The post AFCON is our home call appeared first on Daily News.