Our game will continue suffering for much longer

What you need to know:

  • While the Kenya Sevens team was doing the country proud in Las Vegas, the two factions (the Sasha Mutai group and the KRU body led by acting chairman Gabriel Ouko) were in court and ended up at the office of our rapidly overworked Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario.
  • This has brought a massive headache for football in particular, as the Fifa statute forbids government interference, and this is why Kenya could be heading towards worldwide sanctions should Wario decide to crack the whip.
  • Shabana have already played their first match in the FKF Premier League, which has shown where their allegiance lies. Should the team wish to join the KPL for whatever reason than they’ll have to make some concessions and earn the trust of the stakeholders.

These are generally very depressing times for the local sports fan. The events witnessed this week in football, rugby and athletics have left a lot to be desired and proves that sports administration is still behaving very juvenile and needs to grow up for the country to witness meaningful change in this all-important sector.

Where did we go wrong to witness such abhorrent behaviour? I believe it comes down to our society. We have let impunity permeate our culture and glorify greed and materialism. This is what is being witnessed amongst our sports officials.

In football, money is at the centre of the fight between the Football Kenya Federation and Kenya Premier League Limited, the body mandated to run Kenya’s top-flight competition.

I felt ashamed to follow the stubbornness between the two parties witnessed at the Southern Sun Hotel on Wednesday, and without going into too many details, surely the unholiest of spats between them should never have gotten this far!

Now Kenya stands to lose everything that the country has gained due to the greed and arrogance of a few individuals.

In rugby, as much as anybody has a right to call a Special General Meeting within the confines of the Kenya Rugby Union constitution, the fact that a group seemed hell-bent on taking control of the body weeks before the Annual General Meeting to elect new officials makes you wonder where the sport has gone wrong.

While the Kenya Sevens team was doing the country proud in Las Vegas, the two factions (the Sasha Mutai group and the KRU body led by acting chairman Gabriel Ouko) were in court and ended up at the office of our rapidly overworked Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario.

Let’s hope that the sport can gain some form of sanity for a few weeks until the AGM next month.

As for athletics, the stigma of doping, impunity and alleged corruption within the body has threatened to drag the image of the country as a whole down.

The sport has always brought glory to Kenya, but the spate of failed drug tests along with officials in charge whom are seen as past their sell by date has agitated former athletes in particular, and it looks inevitable that the government will invoke the Sports Act and force a change in administration.

FOOTBALL'S MELTDOWN

So where do we go from here? We need to first change the way we think and behave as a society. As long as we the public, many of whom are officials, carry on with the ‘me first, others second’ attitude, then we will continue to elect and re-elect the same half-baked officials to power.

This has brought a massive headache for football in particular, as the Fifa statute forbids government interference, and this is why Kenya could be heading towards worldwide sanctions should Wario decide to crack the whip.

Thousands of livelihoods are at stake should these sports not clean up their acts. The sad thing is that the circus is set to continue for at least a few weeks more for all three disciplines.

So Kenya is braced for the start of parallel top-flight leagues this weekend: The KPL and FKF Premier League. It’s worth noting that Fifa does not recognise more than one league and the country should be braced for sanctions from the world governing body.

We have found ourselves in this position due to the deep mistrust between the two warring factions. It all started in November last year when FKF first floated the idea of an 18-team league.

KPL was initially willing to compromise, but when the FKF held on to and doctored a Fifa report, which was compiled by a consultant, then all hell broke loose.

KPL stuck to their guns and the local governing body maintained their hardline stance that has led to the situation we have today.

If you look at the picture closely, KPL is the only high-level league that has been largely run properly, with officials and stakeholders being paid on time and fixtures run relatively efficiently. This has breed envy amongst FKF officials who now want a piece of the pie. On the other hand, whatever FKF is asking for is within their rights, but whereas last season whatever decisions made by the KPL were footballing related, FKF’s decisions were largely populist, which appeared to be related to the current power struggles we are witnessing today.

So with the two leagues kicking off this weekend, the 14 teams that played in the KPL last season have decided to stay put. This is a loaded statement to FKF president whose competition will be now be watered down; a clear case of why you have to earn the respect of players and officials to have them on your side.

As for the 14 teams in the KPL, well they’ve been ignoring the politics and continuing their training. Shabana have already played their first match in the FKF Premier League, which has shown where their allegiance lies. Should the team wish to join the KPL for whatever reason than they’ll have to make some concessions and earn the trust of the stakeholders.

Away from the politics, the charismatic former Gor Mahia coach Zdravko Logarusic is back in town. The Croat arrived in the country on Thursday and immediately proceeded to Mumias where he’ll take charge of AFC Leopards’ first KPL match.

Meanwhile Kenya’s representatives in continental competitions Gor Mahia and Sofapaka will be using their games this weekend to prepare for their return leg matches next weekend.

NEWS SEASON, NEW CARS

As you read this, the first event of the new KCB Kenya National Rally Championship season is underway with the KCB Kisumu Rally.

This will be the most explosive season yet, with Baldev Chager electing to defend his title with the Mitsubishi EvoX he so successfully drove last year, and he’ll be up against the Proton S2000 of Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo and the 2 new Ford Fiestas of Manvir Baryan and Rajbir Rai, which are the first cars in the country to debut under the new R5 regulations, that are essentially the production version of the WRC cars.

However, the most excitement will be generated by the return of Ian Duncan in the Nissan Patrol pick-up that took him to victory in the season ending Guru Nanak Rally in December.

This will be a highlight of the Western Kenya sporting calendar, and it is a brave new dawn for Kenya motorsports as this will be the first year that the Safari Rally will not be a part of the FIA Africa Rally Championship.

How this will affect the country’s relationship in the long term remains to be seen, but judging by the amount of new cars in the championship this year, the future looks very rosy.