Dying Kenyan football surely needs new officials

AFC Leopards fans at Mbaraki Sports Club after their side lost 2-1 to hosts Bandari in a Kenyan Premier League match last year. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • At club level, the impasse appears to be hitting the main teams, as reports of players being paid pittance and boycotting training sessions are becoming the order of the day. The clubs need revenues by playing on the pitch, and the longer the two factions fight the worse the situation will get.
  • The fact that the heckling was right in front of the media cameras showed rugby in a negative light to current and potential sponsors, and the fact the heckling “mysteriously” stopped when the cameras moved outside for the interview with the incoming chairman Richard Omwela shows that the antics displayed were premeditated.
  • The Kiamburing and TTs (Time Trials) are sanctioned events, and one regular high profile figure at the Kiamburing is the Kiambu Governor William Kabogo.

Football Kenya Federation is a prime example of how not to run a sports organisation. In just a few months, they have turned the Kenyan Premier League from one of Africa’s best-run leagues into a competition in turmoil and frankly a laughing stock for the rest of Africa and the world.

Officials within the ruling body saw money and blatantly decided to try and wrest the league from the management, which is a separate and private entity.

Many meetings and court cases later, the future is still bleak for top-flight football, with players and stakeholders in the dark as the two factions stubbornly hold their ground with no solution in site.

I squarely blame FKF for this mess. KPL may have their faults and yes FKF is the body mandated to run the game in the country, but why interfere with something that’s working and forcefully try to grab it by any necessary means?

It is time for the whole management to give way to fresh blood. Kenyans are fed up of the current administration. They are a cancer to football and sports administration in the country. Whilst they swagger from court to hotels trying to beat the KPL officials to submission, the players, officials and other stakeholders are literally starving to death as their main source of income is shut dry.

So-called “letters” with Fifa letterheads that have been flying around in recent weeks should also be a source of concern as they are not backed up by actions from the world governing body. If their authenticity is in doubt then they become legal issues. When is the government going to take the bull by the horns and start taking the unprecedented step of possibly banning these officials from holding any office and let Kenya start from scratch? That is the painful step the country has to take, as honestly we cannot get any lower than this.

At club level, the impasse appears to be hitting the main teams, as reports of players being paid pittance and boycotting training sessions are becoming the order of the day. The clubs need revenues by playing on the pitch, and the longer the two factions fight the worse the situation will get. Football is in a very bad state indeed.

RUGBY'S WEEK OF DESTINY

Rugby needs to wake up and smell the coffee. It is time for stakeholders to take a good, hard look at the game and realise that something is badly wrong.

The behaviour exhibited by representatives of Spartans and Stormers rugby club at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was frankly unacceptable and they must be brought to book. The fact that the heckling was right in front of the media cameras showed rugby in a negative light to current and potential sponsors, and the fact the heckling “mysteriously” stopped when the cameras moved outside for the interview with the incoming chairman Richard Omwela shows that the antics displayed were premeditated.

Fair enough. This is not the first time there has been heckling, and it certainly won’t be the last. However, the fact that lovers of the sport keep brushing aside this behaviour and saying that rugby is the “gentleman’s game”, with people sitting together and having a drink together afterwards doesn’t wash. Perpetrators must be brought to book and charged with bringing the sport into disrepute. Otherwise rugby will continue to “slide towards football”.

Omwela was the right choice. He had a successful first stint as chairman and he is aware he has to heal the sport by consulting with the Sasha Mutai-led faction that was in court trying to stop the AGM from going ahead on the day of the event.

However, the bigger task is to turn around the finances of the union that I’ve been informed are in a mess and to persuade sponsors that rugby is once again on the right path.

Omwela also has to stop errant directors from interfering with the day-to-day running of the union and discipline those that have been proven to be involved in financial impropriety and gross misconduct.

There’s no doubt that the new chairman has his work cut out for him, but his experience as a highly successful lawyer and businessman should go a long way towards turning around what was becoming a rudderless ship.

How can underground racing be legitimised?

HORRIFIC ACCIDENT

A tragedy occurred near Limuru last Sunday when two high performance supercars were involved in a horrific head on collision, which resulted in the death of driver Amir Mohammed and left another driver with serious injuries.

Social media has been awash with speculation as to what exactly happened and what should be done about underground racing in the country. Just to make clear on what happened, this was not the Kiamuring TT race but two drivers out for a drive.

As to why they were speeding in opposite directions is not exactly clear, but that particular area is very popular with high performance cars testing their speeds on weekends.

This type of motor sport is very popular in Kenya, and movies like the Fast & Furious franchise has added to the allure of spending money to “soup up” cars and race against each other illegally or in sanctioned races. The death of movie star Paul Walker in a high speed car crash late last year has added to the anticipation of the release of the seventh movie next month, and many have compared the passing of Amir to Walker, as Amir was known as the king of performance car racing here.

Just to make it clear, there are two topics we are talking about here: underground racing and the Kiamburing TT.

Underground racing is unsanctioned and is where enthusiasts meet to compare vehicles, parts and “race” each other. The Kiamburing and TTs (Time Trials) are sanctioned events, and one regular high profile figure at the Kiamburing is the Kiambu Governor William Kabogo. I understand from a reliable source that there has been contact between the organisers of the event and the Kenya Motorsports Federation (KMSF).

This must continue and the competitions should eventually conform to KMSF regulations so that the public at large can be satisfied of its legitimacy.

It is a matter of urgency that the government looks into the issue of a proper motorsports tarmac-racing track.

If you look at tracks around the world, they are a great source of revenue and bring glory to countries that have the privilege of bringing the likes of Formula One, MotoGP and Superbike racing to their facilities.

A track also largely moves private high performance bikes and cars away from public roads and ultimately saves lives. Stakeholders must start charting the way forward with the government to make this a reality.