Kimanzi hits out at Cecafa, brands tourney 'Jua Kali'

Tanzania's Nickson Kibagage (left) shields the ball away from Harambee Stars defender Samuel Olwande during their 2019 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup third place play-off match at the Lugogo Stadium in Kampala on December 19, 2019. Kenya won 2-1. PHOTO | COURTESY |

What you need to know:

  • Kenya failed to defend the regional football showpiece in Kampala, finishing third in the eight-team competition after Thursday's 2-1 win over Tanzania in the third place playoff at the Lugogo Stadium.

Harambee Stars coach Francis Kimanzi has hit out at the organisers of the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, accusing them of presiding over a Jua Kali tournament.

Kenya failed to defend the regional football showpiece in Kampala, finishing third in the eight-team competition after Thursday's 2-1 win over Tanzania in the third place playoff at the Lugogo Stadium.

A furious Kimanzi also blamed among other factors, the notorious Kampala traffic for his team's shocking 4-1 thrashing by lowly Eritrea in the semis.

"The results we have posted here are important, but the process of achieving them is more important," observed Kimanzi.

"This tournament doesn't fall within the Fifa calendar so our clubs back at home are not compelled to release players. I had to literally persuade the clubs to give me players. Then the tournament organisers only allowed us to come with 20 players instead of 23. I was not in a position to rotate them."

The former Tusker and Mathare United coach also hit out at the state of the pitch.

“Again all the matches were played at the artificial turf at Lugogo with very little recovery time within the matches and this is unacceptable. Fifa itself is doing away with turfs because scientific research has proved it is not good for the players. You need at least 72 hours to recover after playing in the turf but at this tournament there was no recovery time and I am going back to Kenya with a lot of injured players. I will have difficulties getting players from clubs next year and when I come with youth players Cecafa will complain that we are undermining the tournament.”

“We also got a very small training pitch and the traffic in Kampala is crazy - we wasted almost 3 hours daily in traffic. The organisation of the tournament has to improve. We are happy we beat Tanzania to emerge third. We could have done better as the defending champions but Eritrea was the better side in the semi-final and beat us convincingly,” he added.

SUSPENSION

He also took another dig at the Cecafa Local Organising Committee for handing him a two-match ban over a documentation issue involving Tanzanian players just before the first group stage match which Kenya won 1-0.

“How do you ban me as a coach while it is our team manager that questioned why the Tanzanian players were being allowed to play without valid identification documents as required by Cecafa itself? This is a tournament that is run in a 'Jua Kali' way and things have to improve,” the experienced tactician lamented.

Tanzania coach Juma Mgunda lauded Kenya for the win and said the experienced his young side gathered at the tournament would be vital as they prepare for the 2020 African Nations Championship set to be held in Cameroon in April, next year.

“We lost to a better side who were more disciplined tactically and took their chances after we committed mistakes. However, I have to look at the positives which I think outweigh this loss – we have played five international matches which have helped us identify our strengths and weaknesses as we prepare for Chan. I also agree with Kimanzi, Cecafa needs to extend the number of players each team registers for the tournament, 20 is not enough,” he said.

This is the third time Kimanzi has come short of winning a tournament organised by the regional body. He finished third with the national team in 2008, and fourth while in charge of Mathare United at the Kagame Cup in Sudan a year later.