By Francis Okello Ngira,
Gor and AFC must lead the end to the disorganisation of Kenyan football now. You all may be asking what has prompted my line of thought but just think about it, You cannot have an organisation where everyone is a decision maker in pretext of being a community club; our two ‘big clubs’ in Kenya must lead the way by learning from the best.
Whereas at home we we survive on political patronage and favours, The likes of PSL’s Orlando pirates and Kaizer Chiefs are professionally run by proper secretariats completely detached from their ‘political wings’ and that’s why they are able to court more than one sponsor hence attract the best talent there is within the continent.
The capital that was once on our big names in the 70’s and late 80’s is nolonger there to be harvested and that’s why we can go halfway or like Nairobi city stars into seasons without a sponsor…wait a minute I can see Mamelodi sundowns scouts neatly dressed in their team track suits passing next to the terraces we are sitting on as we wait for the formality that is Gor Mahia Vs Djibouti Telcom game, apparently they have been in Kigali since we started covering this 2014 CECAFA Kagame cup my colleague Martin Chege has just whispered as he waves to them. Azam FC was started barely ten years ago but they have an ardent following beating most of our Kenyan soccer dinosours.
You realize I am to talk of how loaded the club is because money without solid plans and organisation is as good as nothing. I choose to talk about their multipurpose complex in Chamazi area in the outskirts of Dar es salaam that has two grass pitches, a gym, a specially designed pool, dinning area, boarding section, one artificial pitch with a sitting capacity of approximately 20,000 fans, a soccer academy only to mention but a few.
This and many other structures that show seriousness are among the reason why you can only admire Kipre Tchetche, John Bocco, Didier Kavumbagu, Shumari Kapombe, Khamis Mcha Khamis, and Mwadini Ali Mwadini play for Azam but you cannot get them to our Kenyan big sides. Our numerical value will never come to bear until the day we shall decide to run things professionally from recognized functional bases a.k.a offices and not ‘briefcases’.
It’s sad that journalist are the celebrities while players are paupers. Have you ever wondered why most of our players are playing their beloved game within the confines of Kamiti maximum prison? It is because for a very long time we in Kenya have been running this game only as a hobby while our competitors run it both as a hobby and a serious money making machine. You can imagine what our players go through if the author is just a live sports cameraman who sees all these through his lens though without sound.
NB:The writer Francis Okello Ngira is a senior cameraman working with Supersport
