Chaos ensues in Arusha City after an anticipated soccer match gets cancelled – The Tanzania Times

Chaos, bedlam, mayhem and confusion filled the Arusha City Center after an irate crowd of people who were demanding their stadium entry fees back, launched major protests.

The problem arose when the scheduled football match between Simba Sports Club of Dar-es-salaam and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) United team was cancelled following torrential rains hitting the Northern City.

As it happens, heavy rains caused the football pitch at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium to be submerged under water, causing the match which was to be played in the afternoon of Saturday, March 14, 2026 to be called off.

This was to be the first major game in the city for the TRA United Sports Club, a team which had just moved into Arusha to become the resident team in the region.

Tickets for the planned football match between TRA United and Simba Sports Club, part of the NBC Premier League, had been on sale throughout the preceding week, which means the Stadium, located along Colonel Middleton Road in Arusha was filled to capacity.

It therefore explains why the postponement of the match caused a big commotion among football fans in Arusha who started shouting, screaming and tossing things in the air demanding their money back.

Entry fees to the stadium were divided into 50,000/- for the high-end stalls, 30,000/- for second-class section of the stadium, down to​ the 10,000/- ​category for the ordinary platforms.

Only part of the stadium features a roof cover, the rest are open stalls, which means people were drenched to the bone by the rains.

The police squad from the Field Force Unit (FFU) later stormed into the arena and started shelling tear gas bombs to the irate crowd in an attempt to disperse the protestors, causing the chaos to expand and cover a major part of the city center.

Traffic grounded into a standstill, business outlets forced into premature closure as traders feared the possible destruction of property from the angry protestors.

Stadium management was nowhere in sight to comment on the situation, and neither were the officials for Arusha Regional Football Association (ARFA) nor the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) representatives.