Gor Mahia on Sunday failed to travel to Algeria for their Caf Champions League first round match against CR Belouizdad citing lack of commercial flights to the North African country.
The future of the record champions in the continental competitions now hangs in the balance as they now face an imminent ban from the competition if the Confederation of African Football (Caf) ultimately doesn’t consider their reasons for failing to travel to Algiers.
The team was scheduled to leave Nairobi at 8pm last night but the journey failed to materialise, an indication that the match scheduled for Wednesday may not take place.
The record Kenyan champions’ management instead wrote to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) requesting them to plead their case so that the game could be rescheduled to a later date.
The differences between Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier and Secretary General Sam Ochola once again came to the fore after the journey aborted with Ochola saying the main issue was lack of tickets and unpaid player salaries.
“By today (Sunday) evening there were not enough air tickets and the players had made a hard stand that they have to be paid. We had an option of connecting flights and using a train which our host had even arranged for.
“It is a shame if in the end this will be classified as a walk-over and the team fined,” Ochola told Nation Sport.
“The issue at Gor is that all issues are handled by one person and the executive committee is not consulted. This is very unfortunate of a club with rich history like ours.”
On the other hand, Gor Mahia CEO Ray Oruo, however, confidently said the journey would not materialise as there were still no tickets.
“We don’t have tickets and neither have the players and technical bench been informed on the travelling logistics,” said Oruo.
K’Ogalo’s travelling hopes turned dim on Saturday morning when the players held a heated meeting at Camp Toyoyo demanding their salaries.
The players refused to train but later reluctantly undertook the Covid-19 test though they insisted they had to be paid their dues before leaving for Algiers.
With the return leg of the tie scheduled for January it remains to be seen whether FKF will cede ground and write to Caf to reschedule the match as requested by K’Ogalo.
Gor has had a frosty relationship with the Federation over the StarTimes broadcast deal and has filed a case on the Sh800 seven year media deal to run the league.
Posta Rangers coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo, who is also K’Ogalo stand in coach, told Nation Sport that he was unsure the journey would materialise on Saturday.