ANOTHER BLOW: Gor Mahia's early exit from Kagame Cup reveals KPL still has a long way to go

Gor's Dan Sserunkuma (left) challenges Houssein Butoyi of Telkom FC of Djibouti during their Cecafa Kagame Club Cup 2014 championship at Nyamirambo, Kigali, on Sunday. [PHOTO: PIC CENTRE]

It was another depressing week for Kenyan football fans.
Hardly two weeks after the national team Harambee Stars failed to progress to the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Kenyan Premier League champions (KPL) Gor Mahia have followed suit with an early elimination from the regional club championships.
Worse, Gor were bundled out of the regional tournament without winning even a match, in a move that raises doubts about the quality of the KPL.
For a long time, it has always been assumed that KPL is among the best in the region, what with a multi-million sponsorship from broadcast sponsors Super Sport.
After Gor Mahia's early exit, it now seems the KPL still has a long way to go. This is a serious indictment on the local league, considering that a tiny country like Djibouti still has representatives in the two-week competition. Gor Mahia could not even beat Djibouti club Telecom in their last group match on Sunday as they bowed out of the event with just two points from a possible 12.
Before Gor Mahia, other Kenyan clubs have not done well either in a competition that has been won a record 15 times by local sides.

Former international Dan Shikanda argues that the failure by Gor to make an impact in Rwanda is proof that a lot still needs to be done by local football managers.
“The management of the league has improved but not on the pitch. We cannot expect to go far if we focus only on making the top better. It is all about developing structures and as long as this remains the same, we should expect even worse results,” he said.
Shikanda said the current system where teams are asked to pay registration fees before playing is responsible for loss of talent.
“We have made football an expensive sport. Those who cannot afford to pay simply give up and yet they may be the best players we have,” he added.
Chemelil Sugar coach Mike Mururi, however, insisted the standards of KPL are still way up there and Gor Mahia’s failure could have been self-inflicted.
“The KPL is still a very strong league. The problem is that Gor Mahia are used to being favoured by local referees who unfairly award them advantage on the pitch. At the regional tournament, they had no such advantage and therefore could not cop," he said.

"My plea to local referees is that they ought to be fair. Showing bias only helps to kill KPL clubs because when they go out there and they do not get the same treatment, it becomes difficult for them to perform."
Another KPL coach who did not want to be named agreed with Mururi and added that the league body should let clubs be exposed to different environments when playing matches.
“It is important that clubs learn to play in different environments and especially without their fans so that they can learn to cope in International tournaments,” he said.
Mathare United coach Stanley Okumbi, however, believes Gor Mahia’s failure was due to lack of adequate personnel.
“A good number of the players who won the league for them last year have left and made it difficult to do well,” he pointed out.

[email protected]