As part of their preparations for an African Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers tie, South Africa chose to face Harambee Stars on 9th February, 2011. Interestingly, Kenya was not the first choice for Bafana Bafana. The South Africans’ next opponents happen to be Egypt; hence, the South African Football Association (SAFA) had planned to invite North African opposition for the FIFA sanctioned International friendlies’ date.
When SAFA failed to secure agreement with their preferred North African opponents, they approached Burkina Farso, who also declined. Hence, the South Africa versus Kenya tie was hurriedly fixed after consultations with Football Kenya Limited, and predictably, without the input of the national team‘s technical bench.
In typical present day Kenyan fashion, where everything occurs in parallels, Government appointed Harambee Stars Management Board arranged a Kenya vs Zambia tie at Nyayo National Stadium on the same day. The reasoning being that Since Kenya will play Angola (our next AFCON qualifiers opponents) at home; it made tactical sense to organize for the team to face a strong Southern African opponent in Nairobi.
FKL quickly rejected this proposal and concluded the South African deal, wondering how friendlies could be organized behind the company’s back and arguing that South Africa was a superior opponent to Zambia.
“South Africa played in the World Cup. They are a high profile team. They are a big catch for us and it will be an honour playing them,” argued Patrick Naggi, FKL’s Technical Director.
FKL also argued that the South Africans were providing everything (read financial incentives); including flying the European based players to South Africa and back. They further argued that playing in South Africa would be more motivating to the players than playing in Nairobi.
Whereas all these arguments make business sense (considering that Kenya would have to provide Zambia with various incentives to bring them to Nairobi) it is important to point out that FKL have blundered far too often when it comes to preparing the national team for international friendlies. On numerous occasions, the company has ferried the team to Middle Eastern cities to play meaningless and energy sapping friendlies simply because there were some financial gains to be made.
While the management board appeared to have genuine intentions of tactically preparing the team for forthcoming engagements, the same cannot be said of FKL. What should be prioritized: the ego of playing a big team and making some cash in the process, or coughing out some cash to bring an appropriately selected team to Nairobi so that the coach can try out his plans for a forthcoming crucial football tie?
Unfortunately, we don’t have the coach’s views in this matter. Former Stars Coach Francis Kimanzi was a no-nonsense and straight talking tactician who was not scared to point out when a friendly was beneficial to the team and when it was a waste of time. Perhaps, Coach Zedekiah Otieno is scared of speaking out against the South African trip lest he gets the sack, considering that he is serving in temporary capacity.
But the team’s Assistant Coach Salim Ali offered what he said was personal opinion, saying: “To be sincere we in the technical bench requested the board to play a strong team at home since we are preparing for the Angola game which will be played in Nairobi. I am surprised that now FKL want to flex their muscle to the board and yet they have no money to run the national team. How does FKL operate without even asking the technical bench on their opinion? “
Obviously, the Assistant Coach would have chosen the Zambian tie if it was up to him to make the choice.
It is high time the Harambee Stars Management Board asserted its authority over Stars’ management before the perennially blundering, and self-centered FKL takes us through another embarrassing and smack-into-brick wall AFCON qualifiers. The Board should professionally contract a national team coach and draw up and implement a technically sound training programme for the team.
However, this won’t be easy, considering the melodramatic nature of the selfish football mafia that continues to create mess after mess in Kenya’s football. What further evidence does one need that FKL is the worst thing to ever happen in the local football scene than this statement by Hussein Swaleh, FKL's Technical Committee chairman:
“The board should have their boundaries and respect us as a federation since they are neither recognized by CAF or Fifa. The federation has the sole responsibility to facilitate any friendly match between two federations. The same applies to the Angola match; all correspondence will come through FKL.”
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