Dar Es Salaam — LOCAL businessmen Yusuf Manji and Azim Dewji have stretched their financial muscles with the purchase of a combined total of 3,800 match tickets, worth 136m/- for next Monday's international friendly between Taifa Stars and Brazil.

Manji fulfilled his promises that he would give Young Africans members free tickets to watch the much-awaited friendly encounter between Marcio Maximo's team and Dunga's World Cup squad set for Monday at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

The club's chief financier purchased a total of 3,000 tickets worth 90m/- (Blue and Green seats which are charged at 30,000/- each, the lowest ticket price). And as he pledged the tickets will be given to each member, who will attend the club's general meeting set for next Sunday at the Police Officers' Mess in the city.

"I've met my promise, now it's down to Yanga members," Manji said in a letter to the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) General Secretary to order the tickets. Dewji's company Simba Trailers purchased 800 tickets.

He said the company ordered 600 tickets for their staff members who, however, will be required to contribute 20,000 out of 30,000/, with the rest to be paid by the company. The company also bought its customers 200 tickets at 200,000/- ticket-price which would cost the company some 40m/-.

"We decided to purchase tickets for our loyal customers and staff members so that we can contribute to the costs of bringing Brazil in the country which is reportedly in the region of 3bn/-," Dewji - a renowned Simba member and former main sponsor said.

Football fans have to part with some 200,000/- as the highest fee to watch the match between Taifa Stars and star-studded Brazil on Monday. The lowest fee is 30,000/- for Blue and Green seats. VIP B tickets are charged at 150,000/-, while VIP C tickets will cost fans 100,000/-, Orange seats close to VIP will be available for 80,000/- as some Orange Curve tickets will go for 50,000/-.

Soccer fans have been complaining that the tickets are too expensive for the ordinary people to afford, but TFF has defended the entrance fees, saying the costs of hosting Brazil was also too high.

Mwakalebela urged companies, institution to buy match tickets for their staff, as well as special groups in the society to help sell out the tickets. The tickets will go on sale from Friday.

Meanwhile, TFF spokesperson Florian Kaijage said today that requests for tickets from across the world were piling up and urged local fans to buy tickets.

"We have received requests from as far as the United Kingdom, Uganda, Dubai and Kenya and we expect more requests in the count down to the Monday Brazil versus Taifa Stars day. This should inspire us to book our tickets earlier in advance.

Brazil is set to arrive in Dar es Salaam next Sunday ready for the historic match against Stars, as part of their build up ahead of the 2010 World Cup set to kick off in South Africa from June 11 to July 11.

Brazil are in Group G together with Ivory Coast, Portugal and an unknown quantity - North Korea. They launch their campaign on June 15 against Korea at the Ellis Park in Johannesburg.