FOOTBALL KENYA FEDERATION MUST GET ITS ACT TOGETHER

On Tuesday, 1^st November 2011 at a packed Moi International Sports Centre, MISC, a new national football governing body was elected into office, after a fiercely contested poll. Out went Football Kenya Limited, FKL and in came Football Kenya Federation, FKF in an eagerly anticipated election that had for months kept the football fraternity on its tenterhooks. Administration of the beautiful game changed hands from a limited company to a body that is recognizable by the world football governing body, FIFA. In came Sammy Nyamweya as the chairman, with former Harambee Stars and Tusker FC, formerly Kenya Breweries FC mid-fielder, Sammy Sholei Tiyoi, becoming his vice, after a hotly contested election.

 After years of mismanagement and politics in the Kenyan football, the entry of the new office, brought with it a cloud of renewed hope and belief. Kenyan football had for years being played in the courtrooms and boardrooms as narrow and self-interested groups sought to take charge of the game, albeit for personal and greedy interests. With this, football standards plundered deep and deep into oblivion; the national team performed disastrously and drastically dropped from an all-time high of position 68 to 134, and we had a separately independent federation, the Kenya Premier League Limited, KPL, running the national league. Football in the country was being haphazardly run.

In their manifestos, the current office promised to cure all these and get our soccer back to the good-old days. But wait a minute. Months after the new office took charge; things have seemed to go awry on some fronts.  The women’s junior national team, fondly renowned as the Harambee Starlets was on the verge of qualifying for this year’s global showpiece, to be held in Japan from 18^th August to 9th September. They came only a step shy from rewriting history and being the most successful national soccer team, even eclipsing our men! They convincingly defeated Zambia and Lesotho, before eventually bowing out to their Tunisian counterparts on a 4- 2 aggregate, albeit after enduring deplorable sickly conditions at their camp in Nairobi’s Shauri Moyo estate.

From walking to and fro the field, having their meals cooked by use of charcoal, in smoky kitchens to having sugarless- tea, these girls defied the odds and flew the country’s flag high. These shameful revelations raised a lot of questions on the national federation’s responsibility and resolve to improve the football standards in the country. In the midst of all these, the federation did not even come out to openly speak about the issue and do anything to help matters. All this had been left to the team’s manager, Rachel Kamweru and listening to her, one got the feeling of a national team, no longer treated with the dignity that other national teams are accorded. But why did our brave and determined girls have to suffer all this humiliation? These are questions that the national office cannot afford to leave unanswered.

Hooliganism has continued to be our football’s Achilles heel.  Rowdy fans have invaded our once peaceful stadia and caused havoc; innocent lives have been lost, motorists especially along Mombasa Road and Uhuru Highway have borne the brunt of these headless hooligans, who disguise themselves as football lovers. Despite all these shameful events, no decisive action has been taken to put this to an end. This has prompted the world governing body, FIFA to reduce the capacity of Nyayo National Stadium, thus denying our clubs and national teams, the invaluable home support, whenever taking part in continental assignments, at home. This should have gotten the new football administrators thinking hard, but ostensibly it seems they have not. Hooliganism has continued to thrive with reckless abandon and what the culprits get for this is a mere slap in the face. A precedent must be set about punishing this ugly face that has become of Kenya. It must be nipped in the bud before we one day shed tears  and bemoan thousands of lives lost, as it happened in Egypt, late last year.

Reigning African champions, the Chipolopolo of Zambia should spur us to wake up and endeavor to reclaim our rightful spot in African soccer. This is a team that was an underdog in the continent’s soccer, especially after their dreaded national team crashed off the coast of Gabon in 1993. They got up, dusted their feet and worked towards reclaiming the spot that their legendary team that included the likes of the talented Kalusha Bwalya had put them, before their tragic end. This was finally rewarded early this year when their clinched the African title, after slaying the likes of Ghana’s Black Stars and Cote D’ Ivoire’s Elephants. A treacherous road indeed for a team that no one gave them a chance of reaching the semi-finals let alone the final. Sudan’s Nile Crocodile’s sterling performance must also turn our football administrators green with envy. This a country that had sunk into football oblivion for years yet it surpassed all expectations and gallantly fought against the likes of Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, before bowing out to eventual champions, Zambia in the quarter-finals. But they had left their mark on the continental scene.

The sterling performances by these two countries should pose a challenge to our football administrators. We can afford to sink deeper than we have currently; we have turned into underdogs of the African soccer. We shamelessly lose to Somalia in under-age competitions, get mauled by the likes of Egypt, both at junior and senior level and struggle to beat the likes of Mozambique, at our own backyard. Our soccer fortunes have plummeted from an all-time high of position 68 in 2008-2009 to a lowly 134. Our clubs are used to losing in both regional and continental assignments and we are no longer the regional powerhouse that we once were. This must end. We cannot afford to sink deeper than this.

The newly elected football administrators must lead us back to track. They should live up to every word of their manifestos. Hooliganism must be put to a stop and our national teams, whether the men’s or women’s must be accorded the support that they need and be treated with the dignity that they deserve as flag-bearers of this country. Let us steer clear from cheap politics and engage constructively in rebuilding our soccer; a game that we are all passionate about and unites our country, regardless of the many differences that we got as a people.

Our football has for years been bleeding, due to cheap politics, mismanagement and corruption, amongst a host of other evils. The time to get rid of them is now. Just as Zambia and Sudan, we can get there. Let us all belief and hold hands together, under the tutelage of our football administrators. Every Kenyan is a stakeholder in this endeavor. The onus is onto the administrators of the beautiful game, backed by an equally supportive people.

We all celebrate when our teams win but we are equally sad whenever they lose.