Kenya Football .:. Story - The Real Issues In Kenyan Football

The Real Issues in Kenyan Football - kenyafootball.com image

By Victor Kiru.

First of all much thanks to the creators and workers of kenyafootball.com. People just cannot believe that at the moment, a Kenyan football site can be a such hit. To put a fact clear is to say that Kenyan football has always been battling with the top teams in Africa, this being evidenced by the constant near misses to the African Cup of Nations except when Harambee Stars was under the reign of Nigerian Christian Chukwu in 2000 and currently under Jacob `Eastlands` Mulee.

According to me, a number of factors led to decline of Kenyan football in the late 1990`s, these include a `money`hungry press which accepted hand-outs from certain well placed officials to tarnish the name of others which in effect portrayed some officials as qualified for the top job but obviously turned out to be a flop and then there was the increasingly popularity of the English Premier league and as the press are in the business world what followed was the neglect of local football which left the central community clubs to the jaws of power hungry politicians who used them as a vehicle to the fulfillment of their self interests.

Then since Kenya is a peaceful country, there has been a tendency by the locals to take things for granted an issue which has worked to our disadvantage. Take the Somalias for example, they tend to be united wherever they are. Today a friendly between Somalia and Kenya at City Stadium will attract more Somalis than Kenyans. Then there is also the inferiority complex a specialty of Harambee Stars players. This is the fear for big teams or well-known players which affects performance on the pitch no matter the preparations.

The reason why MYSA does well is that they go out, they go to play football no matter what opponents they face along the way. In conclusion the only way for East Afican football is up as evidenced by the qualification of Sudan to AFCON 2008 and the tremendous performance of Al-Hilal in the African Champions League.

The author of the article can be reached via e-mail on the following address: "victor kiru" (vikrue@yahoo.com)

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