Nairobi — ‘When is the league starting?’ is the common question every footballer in Kenya now asks to anyone who cares to listen. After almost five months of pre-season training, the players are now ‘bored and tired’ with no competition in sight.
FKF Premier League Chief Executive Officers had a meeting a fortnight ago where they agreed for the league to start by November 20, though no official word yet has come out off a ‘vacuum’ that exists in the management of the game in the country.
Training sessions have now turned bland like sugarless tea, as players’ and coaches’ motivation massively drops due to the uncertainty.
“As a player, it is very hard to maintain the same motivation to train everyday when you don’t know when a competition starts. It is as if you are training for nothing. It has been very demoralizing for us because we have been in pre-season since July and naturally, we are tired,” one of the FKF Premier League players told Capital Sports.
He added; “We really want this solved because this is our career and this is what we feed our families from. The longer the wait, then even us earning a living becomes jeopardized.”
The league was supposed to start in August, but has been postponed numerously by the then Transition Committee. The last postponement was forced after FKF PL clubs said they would not play a league under the Committee, put up by outgoing CS Amina Mohamed.
And now, with the Committee’s tenure ended, there exists a ‘vacuum’ as Amina had disbanded the Federation last November due to alleged misappropriation of funds.
All eyes are now on incoming CS Ababu Namwamba to provide leadership on the issue.
Kenya remains suspended by FIFA due to Amina’s decisions. FIFA reiterated, in their last communication in March, that the only way to lift the suspension is when and if the elected office is back in place.
Ababu, during his vetting in Parliament said he would treat the issue as a matter of priority.
“We really need a solution to this because as clubs, we are suffering. We need a way forward so that our training can also be focused. As at now, people are training blindly,” Tusker FC head coach Robert Matano said in a past interview.
Speaking to Capital Sports, Nairobi City Stars CEO Patrick Korir also said that it is a matter of urgency for the issues to be solved.
“How do we guve the sponsors and club owners value for their investment if we are not playing and if their brands are not visible. It is a tough time for Kenyan football and we really need an urgent solution. We have lost so much over the last one year,” he said.