Hooliganism must be arrested, but not so recklessly

For once, this week we had a point of agreement with the self-styled Ingwe high priest Peter Leftie – Kenyan football administration needs fixing as fast as possible.

As currently constituted, the country’s top football body – I prefer calling them Fellows Killing Football – runs the show like some pyramid scheme with decisions so crazy they would be hilarious were if not for the far reaching consequences they have on those concerned.

Let us start with the team called Tusker. How be it that coach Francis Kimanzi brazenly fielded 12 players for a good time of play in their match against Muhoroni Youth only to escape with a slap on the wrist?

In decently run football administration, Kimanzi should have been banned from appearing within a kilometre of any football stadium, leave alone sitting on a technical bench smug in the knowledge that no action can be taken against him.

Which brings me to the burning issue of the week: the riot-filled Gor Mahia versus Sofapaka match in Machakos and the drama that followed.

Governor Alfred Mutua and the federation viewed Gor Mahia fans as guilty as Lucifer himself for the chaos.

He therefore slapped a Sh10 million fine on K’Ogalo and banned the club from ‘his’ stadium.

The federation followed suit immediately by slapping Gor with a fine and banning the Green Army from the remaining league matches.

HOOLIGANISM
I am in no way downplaying the chaos that took place in Machakos and if you follow this column, you will have noticed that on many occasions I have called for strict measures to curb football hooliganism.

However, the decisions by Dr Mutua and the federation raise more questions than they answer.

First, what formula did the governor use to calculate the hefty fine? Second, he stated that they would use CCTV footage to identify the culprits with a view of taking legal action against them. Fair enough.

Yet, a week later, we have not seen even a five second clip from the cameras.

Both the federation and the governor failed to address a key issue in the whole matter – the role the police played in the matter.

How comes a bunch of yobs can visit terror for close to three hours with no action from the police?

It is imperative that such a high octane match be classified a national event and the police deploy as many boots on the ground as possible.

Football hooliganism is neither peculiar to Kenya nor a Gor Mahia problem. Yes, hooliganism needs to be arrested. But not in the knee jack manner of the federation and Dr Mutua.