Mbeya City FC

Joseph Ssemujju arrived at Sokoine Stadium in January 2022.

The club was formed on 25 August 2011 as Mbeya City Council Football Club, representing the regional capital of Tanzania's Southwest Highlands. It took five seasons to reach Ligi Kuu Bara — the debut campaign of 2013/14 remains its best, a third-place finish that no later season has matched. Local supporters know the team as the Purple Tigers, a nod to the shirt colour, though Jacaranda Warriors circulates too, for the trees that flower purple across Mbeya every year.

Mathias Lule took over in 2020 after Amri Said Juma was let go, and steered the club through two seasons before departing in 2022 — one of the longer coaching spells in a job that has otherwise turned over quickly, Kinnah Phiri's single season in 2016 being closer to the norm. Twenty thousand seats at Sokoine Stadium have watched a club that has never lifted a major trophy; the closest it came was the Federation Cup in 2025, where a run to the semi-final ended against Simba SC.

The 2022/23 season brought relegation, lost in a play-out to Mashujaa FC. Mbeya City answered by finishing second in the Championship the following year, enough for an immediate return to the top flight for 2025/26.