FKF should pay Amrouche in full, says ex-Stars coach Kheri

Former Harambee Stars coach Mohammed Kheri has warned the Sports Ministry to prepare a huge cheque for settling local national coaches unpaid dues should they make the mistake of settling Adel Amrouche’s Sh109 million award.

Speaking in Mombasa on Saturday, the former Bandari tactician asked Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohammed to remain firm and not step in to pay Amrouche's award for wrongful dismissal.

World football governing body Fifa extended the deadline for FKF to pay Amrouche in full to April 24 or face unspecified action.

“I am very happy that the CS for Sports has stood her ground that the government can't pay and won't pay, a stand we are praying that she maintains lest she opens a pandoras box,” said Kheri, who guided Harambee Stars to the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations.

According Kheri, FKF owes him Sh5 million in unpaid dues.

Kheri said he also knew that other coaches such as Elly Adero, the late Sammy Nyongesa, the late Joe Kadenge, Allan Thigo and Jacob “Ghost” Mulee were owed money by the federation.

Kheri said they were unable to officially follow their case with Fifa because of the prohibitive costs.

He said they had once organised themselves as local coaches owed money by the federation and petitioned Fifa only for the world football body to tell them to pay Sh2 million each before their case would proceed.

“I found this ridiculous and nonsensical because there is no way I was going to pay Sh2 million for a Sh5 million claim. I thus abandoned the case altogether," he said.

Kheri said the FKF leadership has just been "lazy and careless" when it came to paying for the services of national team coaches and it was good they learnt their lesson the hard way.

The former KPA welfare and sports manager said a Fifa ban would be good for the country since Kenyans will have a chance to put their house in order.

“We have been busy fixing the top with total disregard of the foundation of Kenyan football which I think is where our problem as a country is,” said Kheri.

He said Kenya should now be having youth development programmes starting from age grade eight through to 20 years.