Friday 22 February 2008

Kenyan Football Charade

It never feels good when you wish the inevitable doesn't happen but it does. Fate has a way of playing serious games with our lives but then again, I'm no player but the pawn too.
KFF and the on going charade of non-payment of fees leaves the Kenyan representatives to Africa's equivalent of the lucrative Champions League, Africa Cup Winners Cup which is nowadays called CAF Champions League. The reps, Tusker FC were forced to cancel their opening game last weekend owing to non-payment of fees owed to CAF amounting to arnd Kshs. 455000 (US$6500) !
Funny enough, Tusker FC had hosted their opponents Eritrea's Al Tahrir for close to a week with total expenses totalling around KSh.5 million ( approx. US$ 72000). Do your maths and see the logic in hosting a team and preparing hard on the pitch only for the game to be cancelled.
I hate sounding like some broken record but we didn't expect any miracles from the officials perceived to be heading the KFF, honestly I can't tell who runs what and which official heads which department. They keep changing the scene with one team of officials claiming legitimacy ( almost like our politicians....) and others waving the FIFA wand.
What bothered me was the Tusker FC management and Tusker Sports division. This was a clear show of lack of co-ordination and initiative. I thought they had professionals run these organisations, but then again this is Kenya where even the perceived pros do a lousy job especially in sports( remember Maina Kariuki & his Powerpoint presentations when seeking office 10 years ago?). To make it worse, the sports director at Tusker Sports one Mr. Patrick Naggi , who coincidentally doubles up as the KFF Technical Director of Football kept making conflicting statements about the game up until the last minute. ( Btw,Tusker FC coach is also the national team's head coach...is this monopoly or what?). Sadly there were some fans who even showed up without prior knowledge.
REVOLUTION + MIRACLES !
What role does FIFA play in all this ? One day, they announce funds available for FIFA Goal Project and the next we have officials who are hardly ever seen messing the game.
Some local rumour has it that this is a turf war between CAF's supremo Issa Hayatou and FIFA's Sepp Blatter. Since they never see eye to eye, the local federation can offer a nice tug-and-play for their proxies. And in effect you might see a whiff of the same since some officials seemed to know the non-payment of the fees but somehow waited for some leeway from FIFA which didn't say a word and had to follow CAF's lead.
Now chances of Kenya being a strategic partner in the FIFA World Cup 2010 seems to be slimmer by the day. What with the crisis that happened, we really do not need any shocks to the system. But with such goons for officials, we're be headed straight for the dogs and the scraps and bones thrown at us.
Can anyone out there lend me a spaceship or something ? What happend to the Moon tourism thingy? I think there are some people who urgently need that visit and may the ship breakdown up there or where ever !
SIDE NOTE:
KFF launched their website, logo and portal for the coming year. Lucky to have SuperSport on board, this would have been another failed mission. Given the crisis at hand politically, even the sports officials seem to be staggered too in development. Check it out www.kpl.co.ke

2 comments:

Andruid said...

ON the space tourism a certain Richard Branson (of Virgin fame) is said to be spending billions of dollars on a Space rocket but even he would rather invest in rugby.

The KPL logo looks very suspiciously similar to the one Super-sport imposed on their own South African PSL when they professionalised it a few years back and I cannot help wondering if this is not another sign that sports is slowly being turned into an elaborate business marketing venture.

Anonymous said...

Yeah thanx for the comment Andruid ! Branson's always in the next frontier with some of these ventures & I guess he had it right with our 7s team.
As for KPL, I'm always getting dossier upon dossier ( btw I confirmed nomination of one Mohammed Hatimy into the Mombasa Council...) and the officials are all just jokers !
Look at how the League started...nuf said !