A cry for Kenyan Soccer

In the last ten days, two events happened in our much suffering football fraternity and one deserves praise while the other is cause for concern. Our national team qualified for the African Cup of Nations! Sorry, not our mediocre Harambee Stars but our heroines, Harambee Starlets. The team will grace the women’s showpiece in Younde, Cameroun from November 19, to December 3 2016. Under the tutelage of Moses Ouma, the young ladies did what Harambee Stars has failed miserably in since 2004! A tough 13 years in the cold! Barely a week after defeating Sudan in the first leg of the final-round qualifier in Khartoum, our national Under-20 was this week banned for fielding over-age players. This is the joy and pain of being a football lover in this great nation, disappointments and excitement come in equal measure. On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at a packed Safaricom Stadium Kasarani, the nation drowned in a sea of excitement as our girls re-wrote history. But we forgot that we lack a running women’s national league. The determination of the girls with the help of several high schools and universities such as Kenya Methodist University made it possible. The new Football Kenya Federation boss, Nick Mwendwa never told us about any plans to put structures to ensure consistent success in girl’s football. A look at our competitors later in the year in Cameroun shows an elite cast who take women football seriously. Nigeria’s Super Falcons and the hosts are products of proper structures of women soccer in their countries. Kenya must take that tough route and set up proper leagues, from the grassroots to the national levels. This group of talented girls wishes to play on the global stage like their role models. Carli Lloyd, Sydney Leroux, Abby Wambach and Mia Amm from the USA, Birgit Prinz and Nadine Angerer of Germany, Marta Vieira da Silva of Brazil and Lotta Schelin of Sweden among others. These are mercurial players of the modern women’s game. They are the Ronaldinho’s, Messi’s and Christiano Ronaldo’s of the ladies version. We need proper league and age-group structures to make sure that our qualification to the 2016 AFCON is no flash in the pan. Harambee Stars Under-20 was banned for fielding over-age players in their away qualifier to Sudan. Kenya must sanitize the age-group soccer structures. Proper leagues must be put in place and sponsors should be wooed to support them. Currently, we have no structures for various age-group leagues, except the haphazardly organized Kenya Premier League under-20 league which is not a steady league so far. Some years ago, before the former office scarred away the corporate world; Kenya had the Copa Coca Cola tournament that took the best talents to compete against Africa’s best in South Africa. These are the efforts that are needed now, to make sure under-age soccer development in Kenya is on track. Kenya must rise up and take her rightful place in African and global soccer. Harambee Stars will shun mediocrity and stamp authority in African soccer only if we put in proper structures to nature talent through successive age-groups.