Harambee Stars players boycott training over pay
Harambee Stars boycotted training on Friday and threatened not to honour their last Group “C” match against Uganda over non payment off their allowances.
But Cecafa has quickly moved in with secretary general Nicholas Musonye assuring that the match will take place and the council was in talks with the team and Football Kenya Limited to resolve the payment issue.
“The football officials (FKL) have kept promising us they will pay the allowances but they have not. If we do not get paid we are ready to go home even now,” assistant team captain James Situma, flanked by captain Steven Ochola, told the Press at the team hotel in Dar es Salaam.
Coach Jacob Mulee who also addressed the Press said the players had reached the decision after enduring endless empty promises from FKL.
"The players have not been paid for 19 days and have decided they will not play the Uganda match. They are worried the same trend of non payment of allowances is continuing. They were not paid allowances in 2007 and the same is happening here," Mulee said.
The coach said the players were promised allowances when they came to Dar es Salaam on November 27 but it did not happen.
“They were told they will be paid on Tuesday, then on Thursday, but it did not happened as well. It has now reached a point of no return,” Mulee said at a jammed Press conference.
Will Be Paid
But reacting to the development, FKL first vice chairman Erastus Okul, who is also the Kenya head of delegation, said all allowances will be paid.
"We promised to pay them and we will. Their boycott is just an excuse. The boys failed to win a single match. They cannot deliver and they should not blame the management,” Okul said.
Harambee Stars were beaten 3-2 by Malawi and 2-1 by Ethiopia in their first two matches of the tournament.
“I want this (boycott) to be understood, it is not because of the results of our games but the patience has run out. We as the technical bench have tried to talk to the players to put country first but the players have said enough is enough,” Mulee said.
Okul said the players were owed Sh1.2 million in unpaid allowances.
Musonye said he was in talks with the Harambee Stars management and the match with Uganda "would take place.
“New sponsors have come on board and we want to have a flawless competition that will make the teams, fans and sponsors happy,” Musonye said.
Musonye said other teams had not been paid allowances but had not resorted to boycotts. “That is an internal matter that should be solved internally. Boycotting a match mars the tournament,” he said.
Kenya failed to participate in the 2005 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup after players refused to travel to Rwanda for the tournament over non payment of allowances.
