NAIROBI: Football officials are at it again. Following the breakdown of talks between Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and Kenyan Premier League (KPL) that were being mediated by the world football governing body, Fifa, both parties say they will run separate leagues.
FKF has announced the setting up of FKF-Premier League, whose fixtures will kick off on February 14. KPL had earlier said its league will start on February 21.
This state of affairs takes us back to the dark old days when football was being run more in the corridors of justice than on the pitch. It is interesting that after both parties invited the world governing body to mediate on sticky points, especially on whether the league should be composed of 16 or 18 teams, FKF declined to abide by the recommendations of Fifa.
Our footballers will be the losers in this scenario where officials take matters into their own hands and accept only what favours them.
It is not lost to many that football management in Kenya is a cash cow. People spend a fortune to get seats in branch and national offices. Officials then turn to self-aggrandisement at the expense of the sport.
Attempts by the Government to intervene and clean up the mess in football has always been frustrated by threats from Fifa to ban the country from international competition. Fifa had a good reason to insulate federations from government interference, because post-colonial sports ministers wanted to personalise the federations.
But this insulation has since been grossly abused by officials who run federations like personal fiefdoms, with brazen impunity, knowing no action would be taken against them.
But this should not deter the Government from intervening where necessary. The State too is becoming ambivalent in its approach to dealing with mismanagement in not just football, but other sports as well.
This is the time for the ministry in charge of sports to put its foot down and deal with this matter. Mere threats by Sports Cabinet Secretary to act won't help.
In this era, we can't afford a repeat of a scenario that happened about a decade ago when two parallel leagues were run by two different bodies.
KPL GAINS
It was for a good reason that running of the league was delinked from the federation. KPL has so far done a good job of running the league. Such gains must not be lost by stubbornly being blind to reasoning.
It is time for the Government to bite the bullet and order FKF and KPL to agree on Fifa's recommendations to enable the sport to grow.
Expanding the league to take care of vested interests rather than considering the quality of the league is self-serving, and not the sport we profess to promote.
Kenyan standing in Fifa is pathetic, always below 100. Apart from Denis Oliech, who is now approaching his sell-by date, Victor Wanyama and his brother MacDonald Mariga, prospects of producing more world-class players is quickly dimming.
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It is shameful when the national team cannot qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. Sponsors are bolting away from the most popular sport, which should, under normal circumstances, be attracting sponsorship from the corporate world in droves.
Let us not sit back helplessly and watch self-serving interests ruin football. The Government must intervene, even if it means staying out of global competitions for some time. It is better to stem the rot and live a more fulfilling life thereafter than survive on a daily basis.
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