Nakumatt FC saviours deserve big pat on the back
What you need to know:
- Few weeks ago, the club was acquired by a Nairobi businessman cum politician Francis Mureithi and spared the fate of many teams that depended upon companies to survive.
- There are many that have folded up but we hope there will be more forward looking businessmen like Mureithi to help and put them back on their feet again.
- Nakumatt FC has just shown how resilient football can be. Even after the serious troubles of the supermarket chain, the team still carries its name and remains alive.
Have you ever seen a player in the Kenyan Premier League throw his jersey to the crowd after a match?
Well, if you have seen that dear reader, it must have been in your dreams.
That will never happen soon in this country and any player that may even imagine doing that will have to pay for the jersey.
We cannot afford such luxury here and we are sure that the fan that gets the jersey will not keep it as a souvenir but will wash it and don it the next day.
There were teams in the Super League in the 1980s where players would fight for the right to take all the jerseys home and wash them for the team.
The main reason was that he got a little allowance and used the offered soap sparingly to save it for himself. This caused fist fights after every match since everyone including those that left the kits dirty and mouldy wanted the privilege to earn some pittance.
The clubs had exactly 11 jerseys and the most uncomfortable person would be the incoming substitute. The player going out would faithfully take off his sweaty shirt and hand it to him.
This state of affairs went on for a very long time and we are glad that these days, even teams in the lower division can afford to kit all their players.
Nakumatt Football Club was on the verge of death recently because of the operational woes of the supermarket that has seen their business shrink and debts pile.
Our fear was that soon, they would be forced to fold up and go back to those days of fighting to wash the team kits for survival!
Few weeks ago, the club was acquired by a Nairobi businessman cum politician Francis Mureithi and spared the fate of many teams that depended upon companies to survive.
There are many that have folded up but we hope there will be more forward looking businessmen like Mureithi to help and put them back on their feet again.
Nakumatt FC has just shown how resilient football can be. Even after the serious troubles of the supermarket chain, the team still carries its name and remains alive.
There are rumours that Nakumatt FC will be renamed Mount Kenya FC.
We support that move since it is the owners who must call the shots and make it gain supporters
It could not be supported by the thousands of shoppers that thronged the market chain. There was nothing that attracted people to the club but now they will all find some meaning in it.
This should be emulated by all those companies that support a football team. A Mombasa club called Coast Stars died in the same manner when a bank changed the name to that of the bank.
The fans disappeared and the club fizzled out. Let Nakumatt keep up the faith and bounce back to winning ways.
The move to save them is worth praising and we hope they should not go back to the interesting 1980s for lack of funds.
