Angola 2010: It’s time Kenya learnt its lessons

Kenya’s poor soccer standards can be salvaged if those managing the game learnt valuable lessons from the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations that took place in Angola.

They have mismanaged the game and forced local fans to embrace European leagues.

They need to understand that soccer is played and won on the pitch and not in boardrooms.

And that history is the worst yardstick for measuring performance.

The tournament in Angola told it all — favourites were bundled out of the competition in the early stages while Malawi proved to all that in soccer, the talk of the underdog does not hold.

Long gone are the days when Kenyan stadia were filled to capacity when then football giants Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards faced off.

It is difficult to forget the day the two teams met in Khartoum and Mogadishu in what ended as an all-Kenyan final.

So exactly what went wrong with soccer management in the country?

Where is the Gor Mahia that lifted the Mandela Cup for the first time since its inception or the AFC Leopards that reached the semi finals of the club champions in Yaounde, Cameroon?

The successful staging of CAN tournament by Angola, a country which learned peace the other day is a major challenge to soccer authorities in Kenya.

It saddens me that we could not host the championship in 1996 due to lack of goodwill from the government.

Do we stand a chance to host the CAN tournament on Kenyan soil? Only time will tell.

The Kenyan government must move with speed to revamp the popular game in the country.

Current office-holders must be send packing.

Inept and corrupt administrators who hold sway in football decisions have no place in Kenyan soccer.

May the right people manage soccer in Kenya. The time for a fresh start is now.

Bahati Amaya
Nairobi