By Gilbert Wandera
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Tuesday fired the entire Harambee Stars technical bench after a string of poor results.
The federation removed Francis Kimanzi as head coach and appointed him the new technical director, while his assistants Francis Barasa and Yussuf Chipo were sent home. FKF also moved Patrick Naggi to the new position of Executive Officer.
FKF chairman Sam Nyamweya said the federation is still consulting on the position of head coach and will make an announcement on the same later.
“We have decided to give Kimanzi new responsibility which comes with bigger requirements,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kimanzi insists lessons learnt from a disastrous World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations campaign should be the main focus, not calls. Little did he know that he was to be fired.
Kimanzi, who spoke upon the team’s arrival from Togo on Tuesday morning, defended his fielding insisting he used the best players available.
Went down
Stars lost 1-0 to Namibia in a World Cup qualifier and went down by a similar margin to Togo in a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.
“We have learnt some great lessons from this two losses and one of them is the need to do everything possible and win your home matches. It is obvious to us about the difficulty of winning or even collecting a point away,” he said.
Kimanzi also blamed poor officiating during the loss to Togo claiming that the referee was biased in most of his decisions and does not regret being sent off in the second half.
Heavy criticism
“The referee appeared to have a set mind and I’m glad he sent me off instead of one of my players, otherwise we would have been humiliated,” he said.
Regarding his fielding in both matches that has come under heavy criticism, the coach said it is not fair to blame individual players without looking at the overall performance of the team.
“I cannot criticise the players that I picked myself. It is normal for player’s form to dip from time to time but an individual cannot affect the performance of a team,” he said.
He also pointed out some positives in the team, insisting that its defensive aspect is complete and just needs a bit of exposure.
“I understand the disappointment of local fans but as a technical bench we get disappointed even more when the results we expect don’t come. As a country, we need to look at our league and all other aspects of the sport and ask ourselves whether we have the quality that can help us,”
“We cannot always rebuild but have to get on from on here. We have become a very negative society such that it is not easy for me as a coach to introduce young players in the team because no one will give them a chance to grow,” said the coach.
FKF Secretary General Lodvick Aduda, said Kimanzi should take responsibility for the poor results.
