Victor Wanyama to grace national football symposium

Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama and Sports PS Kirimi Kaberia are among eight dignitaries invited to a national football symposium aimed at addressing the challenges currently grappling the sport on the local front.

The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, who is in the country on holiday following the conclusion of the English top-flight football season, will be gracing the Kenya Football Symposium organised by the Jaza Stadi initiative at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Monday.

From his vast experience which includes playing before 80,000 spectators at the Wembley stadium in London each week, and competing in the Uefa Champions League for the past two years, the 26-year old player is best fit to articulate on issues such as poor attendance in local stadiums, plus the recent disappointing performance by the national team.

"We realised that there is a lot of misunderstanding on people's mandates; a lot of blame games going on and a lot of people talking at cross purposes," Jazi Stadi director Carol Radull, who is organising this function explained on Wednesday.

"All these factors and more contribute to poor attendance of games, lack of revenue for clubs and players, and ultimately questionable performance of our national team. We felt it was important to get all stakeholders in one room and put all issues in the table to be discussed and solutions sought jointly."

Kenya is currently ranked 105 on the 208-team Fifa rankings and has yet to qualify for any continental championship since 2004 when it played at the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia.

Other expected dignitaries at the day-long event are Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa, former Stars' skipper Musa Otieno, Kenya international James Situma, and Kenya Premier League Chief Executive Jack Oguda.