Thanks to Bandari, coast football fans can enjoy some entertaining football

What you need to know:

  • For the time being the onus is upon Bandari football club.
  • They cannot win the league because it has already been won, but they can at least take the second spot and pull up some steam at the coast.
  • Nakumatt has miraculously pulled herself from the relegation zone and that is worth some Guinness stout award.

Of course the Kenya Premier League is nearing its end for this year.

We are yet to resolve the football calendar so that we be at par with the world and the Fifa calendar. We are still grappling with the financial strain that is slowly strangling our clubs.

We are stuck in the mire and our national team is really scaring us and raising hairs even where we did not know that the hair exists! We will not solve these problems now and we know it.

All that we are praying for is that the beginning of next season shall not be as usual. That The Kenya Premier League Limited (KPL) and the Football Kenya federation shall not take us (football lovers) to court and delay the beginning of next season.

That both this bodies shall have ironed out all their petty and annoying differences away from us.

That all the clubs in the league shall have registered themselves in time and that the silly time of the recess shall be avoided. These are our prayers.

For Gor Mahia, the season has been good and they know their position. For the other teams there is still a lot to be fought for. Mombasa is waiting for at least a second finish. As I was penning this piece, we were watching Bandari Football Club warming up for a very crucial match.

There were many very good teams at the coast but many of them are extinct due to financial difficulties. It has been a long time since teams like Wanderers, Feisal, Lake Warriors, KENATCO and many others made people happy in this coastal town.

Defeat has been the mantra for a very long while but things seem to be changing for the better.

There were days when they passed in the streets of Mombasa and they would be asked with coastal irony: “leo mwaenda fungwa ngapi?” it was sad to see their faces. It bothered the lads a lot.

Bandari is the only team from the coast that features in the local top-tier football league. This is the only reason why it is now attracting a lot of attention.

Of course the team does not have fanatic local following since it is not of “mtaani” origin and is owned by the Kenya Ports Authority which is a parastatal, but it is now the craze of Mombasa simply because it is the only team that brings us the Kenyan Premier League matches in the town.

There is a possibility that sooner or later another coastal team shall be on the line to ascend to the same stature and that will be much better.

For the time being the onus is upon Bandari football club. They cannot win the league because it has already been won, but they can at least take the second spot and pull up some steam at the coast.

Nakumatt has miraculously pulled herself from the relegation zone and that is worth some Guinness stout award.