Nairobi News

Must ReadSports

Ghost, Zico call for FKF-government truce to avoid Fifa ban

By Cecil Odongo November 18th, 2021 2 min read

Former Harambee Stars coaches Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee and Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno have called on the government and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to reach a consensus so as to evade an imminent Fifa ban.

On Thursday last week, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed disbanded FKF and formed a caretaker committee to run football in the country for the next six months.

A day latter, the embattled FKF boss Nick Mwendwa was arrested over allegations of misappropriation and was arraigned in court on Monday. He was released on Sh4 million bond after spending the weekend in police custody.

On Thursday the CS had a lengthy virtual meeting with Fifa Secretary General Fatuma Samoure. She later ruled out the possibility of rescinding her decision.

The Justice Aaron Ringera led caretaker committee has also suspended the top and second tier league for two weeks as it strategises on how the competitions will be run in absence of the federation.

But while reacting to these developments, Mulee, who is Kenya Police FC technical director, said that a Fifa ban would hurt the players, coaches, referees and all other stakeholders.

“It is the players, coaches and  referees who will suffer if Fifa bans Kenya. There is so much to lose. Some people in the caretaker committee don’t know anything about football. The government and FKF should work on resolving the current stalemate,” said Mulee

Otieno, who is currently KCB head coach took issue with those in support of a Fifa ban, calling on both parties to use Solomonic wisdom to end the stalemate.

“Those supporting a ban for Kenya are not directly involved in football. The players, coaches and referees are not supporting the idea. When the ban comes our referees will not officiate matches internationally yet in the recent years we have produced referees in top levels competitions like the World Cup, African Cup of Nations and Women World Cup,”said Otieno.

“Our local players will also be barred from pursuing professional careers abroad. The ban will also deny our coaches the chance of offering their services outside the country. Tusker and Gor Mahia also risk being kicked out of the Caf Confederation Cup,” he added.