Former Simba SC spokesman Haji Manara has explained why the Tanzanian Premier League giants have always failed to advance past the quarter-finals of Caf competitions.

Simba have been Tanzania’s flag bearers in Caf competitions for the past years and this season they were eliminated in the quarters of the Champions League after losing 4-3 on penalties to Wydad AC of Morocco.

Last season, Simba had another good run in the same competition but they failed to go past the quarters after losing 4-3 on aggregate to Kaizer Chiefs. Simba had lost the first leg 4-0 in South Africa but won the return leg 3-0 in Tanzania, which was not enough to give them a semis ticket.

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“Simba bragging and seeing themselves as the biggest team in Africa has always been the reason they cannot get past the quarter-finals,” said Manala, who crossed over to rivals Yanga as their Media spokesman.

“For example, you are going to play against Kaizer Chiefs but you still see yourself bigger than them, but at Yanga SC, they do things differently, we don’t underrate teams, we know how to rank every opponent.

“I was in Simba camp before we played Kaizer, I can openly say our preparations were very poor, and the players had already underrated Kaizer, but when we entered the pitch, the result was different, we had lost 4-0.”

While Simba are out of the Champions League, Yanga are in the final of the Caf Confederation Cup and they will come up against USM Alger of Algeria.

Yanga will host the first leg at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Sunday.