Kenya Football .:. Story - Revealed: The Rot In Youth Academies

Revealed: The rot in youth academies - kenyafootball.com image

In the last couple of years, Kenya has seen an increased number of football academies formed, with most of them concentrated in Urban areas.

MYSA ofcourse has been one of the most successful of youth football groups, whereby thousands of youth are positively engaged in meaningful sporting activity, with a progressive structure into the premier league and national team.

Ligi Ndogo has also adopted a similar model by entering a team in the KFF Super League and will be hopefully progressing into the NationWide League at the end of the season. From here, kids who participate in their league will have a chance of appearing in some of Kenya’s best leagues and also a shot at playing for the National Team.

The big question remains, are the academies which have mushroomed interested in developing soccer?

From the reports that we are receiving, some academies are all about the business; the monies. The recent trip to Sweden was a further confirmation.

First of all the owner of Ujuzi Academy Paul Olungae is a big farce. He overcharges parents to send their kids to Sweden. Apparently each parent paid Sh.150,000 compared to the fact that Braeburn International School Students who also travelled to Sweden were only charged Kshs. 9,000.

The Ujuzi management is in the habit of inflating bills for parents while embezzling the difference. They misled all concerned parents that they would put them up in decent hotels but only ended up putting them up in cramped school dormitories where upto 30 children slept in a room.

The worst part of it is that the management is in the habit of manipulating results to look good back home. This was witnessed firsthand this year and exclusively revealed by kenyafootball.com due to the fact that more than one Kenyan team was participating in this year's Gothia Cup.

Last Wednesday, the Ujuzi Academy management was up in arms after some sections of the media reported that the team had lost 16-0 to another team from Mexico. Losing is normal but one reads mischief when Ujuzi's founder goes ballistic about factual reporting. Apparently, results reported by Ujuzi are normally manipulated for the Kenyan public. "Why are you reporting that we have lost, you should only focus on matches we have won. Even in Kenya the newspapers focus on Raila and not Martha Karua because the former makes news,” the owner Paul bluntly told his fellow colleagues and competitors.

Kenyans have suddenly adopted a “get rich quick” attitude and football is turning out to be one of the most lucrative avenues for sharks to target.

Over and above the exploitative charges to parents, Ujuzi is also a beneficiary from a lucrative sponsorship by Tuskys Supermarkets which would mean that most if not all fees payable should be heavily subsidized. But that is not the case. Meaning that the cash given by Tusky's ends up being embezzled by the management. It is these sort of short-sighted tendencies which often demoralize would-be sponsors from engaging in such activities.

To expose the mediocrity of the Ujuzi Soccer tour, we mention one of the most absurd incidences ever to happen in the world of football. No serious football was going on as some parents openly interfered with team arrangements.

One parent in the Ujuzi delegation, local politician Esther Passaris was said to have facilitated separate accommodation arrangements for her son, and dictated which hotel the son slept and what he ate, going against the very essence of team-work. So intimidated is the Ujuzi management by Passaris that they would allow the madam to speak to the team at half –time yet she was not part of the technical management.

No wonder Ms. Passaris is so desperate to become affiliated with football by lobbying for a slot in the soon to be named Harambee Stars Marketing Board. But if this is the kind of intervention the board will be engaging in, we see no real future with their affiliation in the National Team.

Now isn’t that a load of rubbish?