Football Kenya Federation’s assurance on Chan hollow
What you need to know:
- FKF president reasserted that the federation is working round the clock to ensure that all goes well in time; he pin pointed the need to have the stadiums ready in time for the African competition.
- When the Caf officials went for the actual visit to the pitches they were shocked at what they saw.
Football Kenya Federation president was in the news assuring Kenyans that we shall host the 2018 edition of the African Nations Championships (Chan).
It was verbose reassurance he was at pains to sound credible; he laboured very hard to put his points across. He must have known by the looks on the faces of the people of the press that there were doubts. He reasserted that the federation is working round the clock to ensure that all goes well in time; he pin pointed the need to have the stadiums ready in time for the African competition.
All that is well and we all hope it shall come to pass. We would have shut up and just reported the issue and forgotten all about it; but the president said something scary: “when Caf representatives revisit the country in July, a good report regarding progress will be on their table.”
The reader may wonder why we think that statement is creepy but we shall take you back to the year 1995 when we were getting our stadiums ready to host the African Cup of nations. We wrote very ‘good reports’ and put it on the table for the Caf officials. They came and read them and the rosy reports got them satisfied.
We never gave them time to contemplate nor think of anything wrong with us; they were taken to lavish hotels; they watched wildebeest migration; they stuffed themselves with nyama choma and they were even supplied with ale and lass.
To hoodwink them even further, they were given cheetahs to adopt. Adopting cheetahs really cools off any heat from a foreigner - or so we think.
All this fun was accorded the Caf officials just to bar them from visiting the actual situation on the ground. The stadiums were rotting and nothing in terms of repairs was going on.
WRITING GOOD REPORTS
We could play this trick once or twice but it was going to backfire on us. After an appointed time, the officials were back.
They were not ready for nyama choma, they had already adopted fictitious cheetahs so they could not adopt another; they were in foul moods and all they wanted to see were the stadiums! Our reports were getting rosier and rosier.
Trust Kenyans for writing good reports and putting them on the table!
When the Caf officials went for the actual visit to the pitches they were shocked at what they saw. There were some animals grazing on some venues; the toilets were rotten, the stands were abominable; the roads leading to the venues were impassable.
What shocked them most is the fact that the Kenya Football Federation officials who had been giving them all the nonsense reports were unconcerned.
There were just a few months remaining before the tournament. They wrote back their own report to Caf and it caused a frenzy. The jolt at their Cairo office sent looking for a new host.
Independent South Africa was two years old and they agreed to take up the responsibility to host the high profile tournament. Kenya lost her free ticket to take part in the competition and we did not get any apology from KFF. We must admit that we are incapable of organisation.
Nick Mwendwa may mean well but we are sure that come July, the Caf officials shall get “a good report on the table”. There will be nothing more than that.
