Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya
18th October 2005
FANTASTIC FOUR
The qualification of four African rookie teams,
Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, for the 2006
World Cup Soccer finals in Germany is highly
gratifying and commendable. Probably the two most
fascinating qualifications, are those of Angola and
Cote d'Ivoire, war torn and strife plagued for several
years.
Soccer is a universal sport, the global common man’s
game, and football federations across the African
continent will be hard pressed to explain how it is
that Angola and Cote d'Ivoire were able to make it to
Soccer World Cup 2006, and not them. The Kenya
Football Federation (KFF), is no exception in this
regard.
It is however tragic that Kenya, which can be
described as a province of the UK’s Manchester United,
has been unable to mobilise any meaningful advances in
local football, a damning indictment to the entire
apparently soccer crazed nation. Owing to continental
time differences, much of Soccer World Cup 1994,
played in the USA, was viewed during the day locally,
mainly between noon and 5.00 p.m. The same applied to
Soccer World Cup 2002, played in South Korea and
Japan. During both occasions in 1994 and 2002, many
places of work remained deserted during the day, as
several employees took time off to view games. A
random stride through any Kenyan town today, and
especially Nairobi and Mombasa, reveals conspicuous
and readily available merchandise of major European
football teams like Manchester United, Chelsea,
Arsenal, Liverpool, New Castle United, Barcelona, Real
Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Olympic Marseille.
Numerous public service vehicles, and even private
ones, are donned with the logos, emblems and colours
of these teams, and celebrity players such as David
Beckham, Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Michael
Owen, Zinedine Zidane and Rio Ferdinand. Whole towns
and entire centres have been grinding to a halt when
Manchester United and Arsenal have met in the past,
though this is now changing with the growing dominance
of Chelsea, and a much improved Liverpool.
Yet despite the glamour and entrenchment of European
football in Kenya, local soccer has declined with
equally dazzling proportions. Last season, players of
two leading football clubs of yesteryear, Gor Mahia
and AFC Leopards, were many times forced to
disgracefully beg for accommodation for the night on
the very same public service vehicles that lavishly
don the colours of lead European teams such as
Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, New
Castle United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, AC
Milan and Olympic Marseille, giving renewed vigour to
the saying, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”.
There is truly no greater betrayal, than that by one’s
own blood. Also last season, another high profile team
of yesteryear, Shabana FC, made a trip to the coastal
city of Mombasa to play the then Dubai Bank FC, but
were forced to spend two nights on the cold floor of a
sympathetic Mombasa restaurant, because they had no
money for food or accommodation, and at the end, Dubai
Bank FC were forced to hastily convene an impromptu
fund raiser for the disgraceful return of Shabana FC
to their home base in Kisii. This is the terrible
shame of Kenyan football today, yet over weekends,
bars, restaurants and other social places are packed
by patrons in t-shirts, tracksuits and caps of top
European football clubs, who spare no effort
attacking the government and the Kenya Football
Federation (KFF), for not supporting local football,
and for the terrible decline of local football. While
this has been going on for several months now, Angola,
Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, have triumphantly
emerged from the shadows of World football, and
qualified for World Cup Soccer 2006.
It is doubtful whether Angola and Cote d’Ivoire have
facilities as good as the Kasarani Moi International
Sports Centre, Nyayo National Stadium and City
Stadium, to mention a few, but we shall as usual turn
up in big numbers in 2006, to support them, Ghana,
Togo and Tunisia, and thereafter go back to supporting
Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, New
Castle United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, AC
Milan and Olympic Marseille. It is extremely difficult
to side with criticism of the Kenya government and
Kenya Football Federation (KFF), for declining soccer
standards in Kenya, coming from a Kenyan in a track
suit and cap of Barcelona FC, a beer in one hand, a
woman in another, and a wind pipe throttling from the
dual task of spewing out nonsense and attempting to
swallow a mouthful of goat ribs. We are failing
ourselves and sport in this country.
Michael Mundia Kamau