Top league is clubs’ lifeline

By GISHINGA NJOROGE

In some world football leagues, relegation from the top division is regarded, in a sporting sense, worse than death.

Some of Nigeria’s clubs, extremely big names in Africa during their heydays, became extinct after relegation. In fact in the current Nigerian Premier League only (Enugu) Rangers International and Heartland of Owerri have never faced the axe from the top division.

The extermination list in Nigeria is immense: Four-time league champions Shooting Stars of Ibadan, two-time champions Bendel Insurance of Benin City and Julius Berger of Lagos, 1986 champions Leventis United of Ibadan and BCC Lions of Gboko, who triumphed in 1994 are either dead or no longer relevant as far as big-time professional football in Nigeria is concerned.

The names of Bendel Insurance and Leventis United reverberate in Kenya to this day. In 1980, Bendel Insurance painfully eliminated Gor Mahia in the second round of the Africa Cup of Champion Club.

Gor, those days with an impressive away record, had shocked Bendel 2-1 in Benin City and it was heartbreaking to their fans how the Nairobi giants capitulated in the home tie. Wiping off the visitors’ 2-0 lead at the City Stadium then allowed in the killer goal for a 2-3 loss to go out on the away goal rule.

In 1985, Leventis United were to eliminate AFC Leopards in the semi-finals of their best Cup of  Champion Clubs run. Leopards lost 0-2 in Ibadan and a 1-0 reverse at the Nyayo National Stadium was not good.

League wages

When a team is booted out of the Premier League, the remaining top clubs, and sometimes those going up to the higher division, pick over the carcass to asset-strip the players who they think can do a job for them.

Unless a relegated team is prepared to match Premier League wages, it is almost impossible for them to hang onto key performers. All players want to play at the highest level, and it is rare that an individual will stay with a relegated club if they have offers from teams in a league above.

Before and after Independence the Kenyan (National Football League) top competition was always an amateur one. You played for the love of the game, for personal pride and perhaps that also for your community.

Those with big passionate community backing did well, read;  Abaluhya (AFC Leopards), Luo Sports, Luo Union, Gor Mahia, Maragoli, Hakati,  Nairobi Spurs (a cosmopolitan outfit of Seychellois, Asian and mixed race players]  Hakati,  Abeingo, Nakuru All Stars, Kisumu Hot Stars, Feisal, Mwenge, Western Stars, Ramogi,  Gema, Nyanam.

But if the going got too tough at a juncture -- over time, it did for all, except Leopards and Gor -- you went down, accepted your fate and “staid dead”. Scores of other teams in those intermittent years just came to make up the numbers in an essentially Leopards/Gor party.

That’s why you probably will never again hear of Brooke Bond, Chagaik, Limuru Bata Bullets, Kenya Taitex Mills, Mafuko Bombers, Champion, Mulembe, Rivatex, Raymonds, etc. These were indeed top division teams.

But with the emergence of the professional era, things changed. And in fact in the closest years, there has been enough to play for or run a Kenyan Premier League club; some money for the boys at least and also more for those involved in the whole business. The 2008 season was the beginning of better times than past. Six seasons on, there have been five different champions, Tusker being the only double winners in 2011 and ’12.

Relegated teams tend to be the ones with the best opportunity to bounce right back as did previously Mahakama, Bandari and Oserian. This time round Posta Rangers were pipped at the post in a bid to return KPL.

Breaking point

Unlike in Nigeria where relegation apparently delivers the killer blow, the nightmare in Kenya is a team’s attempt to climb to the summit. As we said, the ones that have had a taste of the top are the ones that yo-yo, up and down. The aspirations of most others are kept up to a breaking point. For years and years they keep plugging until, inevitably, something gives and they fold.

One that has ascended to the peak, defying many heart breaking seasons is KRA, under their ex-Kenya goalie coach Kennedy Kenyatta (was in the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Senegal).

The other is Top Fry Nakuru AllStars. Their foundation is that of a former national league winner but their serious charge at returning to the Premiership was only made in the past two seasons; so really, their rise was rapid.

Those still left languishing in the chaotic, ridiculously overpopulated and often meaningless multi-phase “National Division One”, competition are a strange marvel. How they continue playing under the circumstances smacks of masochists, people who love inflicting pain on themselves.

There was a time a fixture would involve a team from Busia, near Uganda and another in Malindi or Lamu, on the Indian Ocean. The Uganda border team would, in a creaky bus, spend three days [often without sleep] to get to the Coast. Hoping of course they would find an opponent. Sometimes the fixture would have been cancelled in mid-travel but the team would never be informed.

Ultimate winners

Last season, the so-called scaled-down league had 47 teams! If you look at the order of finishing (elsewhere in this feature) in different Zones and sub-groups (play-offs decided ultimate winners and promotion candidates) please be educated that most of those on the halfway mark, down, did not even bother to honour away fixtures. Walkovers was always the order of the day.

Karungu is the small bay village, farthest in the eastern Lake Victoria, almost on the border with Tanzania. The season before last, finding it almost amusing that they were required to travel to play in places like Gatundu or Nyahururu, they never bothered to take a break from fishing. When a team showed up in Karungu they played. But eventually they chucked it in and pulled out of the league.

So did Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and HBC Milimani while the going got too tough for Gatundu Stars, Yanga of Nyahururu and Sparki Youth of Mombasa and they were relegated.

A nationwide Division One competition is not even close to making sense. And the least one can do is make it even smaller and lesser expensive to participate in than the lean 16-team Tusker Premier League.

You can only consider small county Division One leagues -- in all the 47 counties. There are still amorphous “provinces” or “regions” in the current set-up. They are not even legal. This country evolved; changed and there were good reasons why “provinces”, “regions” and “districts” were frowned upon and banned. Is football still living in the past? Is Zimbabwe still Rhodesia and Burkina Faso Upper Volta?

Premier league

The 2014 Tusker Premier League kicks off today and one of the exciting things is looking out to see if, after all the recruitment, there will be a team that will make a flying start. Are Tusker, on paper, looking too well organized for the rest?

Machakos as a new home of Mathare United and Sofapaka is fantastic. Great place, good people, great outing. But then apprehension. The Hooligans. The menace. Are they hell bent on ruining Kenyan football, completely?

Meanwhile, some people from Britain were over for a number of days. The KPL had organised a two-day safety and security workshop in Nairobi. Thuggery in football matches has had almost everybody fed up. It is terrible. Some people have decided to mete brutality on others each time when especially AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia play.

It happed in Britain in the 1960s to 80s. The horror of Bradford in ’88 and Hillsborough in ’89-- and of course what happened in Hyesel (Belgium) when a British team (Liverpool] visited there in ’85 -- remain one of worst memories anywhere.

What some people have been doing in Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Awendo and Mumias could end up resembling what Britain went through. Football stadium deaths; five persons perished in the 1960s, 66 in 1970s and 155 in the 1980s.

The last big Kenyan disaster killed five. The personnel for the British Security Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) a government body briefed local management about the role they played in transforming spectator safety at football grounds in the UK.

One of UK’s solutions was outlining clear division of responsibility to Police so that they could supervise public order at stadiums and ensure safety of the venues. Police intelligence about trouble makers at stadiums was paramount. Other UK solutions to the problems of their bad days included addressing:

-Improvement of stadium facilities; Employing professional trained and safety officers; Oversight of safety certificates and licensing of stadia; Use of CCTV (closed circuit television); Change of policing style

Surely there can only be agreement with what these visitors were saying. Everyone here had, indeed, been thinking along similar lines. The plea had already been made to the Inspector General that he must do his job. That it is up to him if he does not want be ticking in the boxes on the template of the days gone by in Britain.

unclimbable devises

On anti-vandalism, for example, it is straight forward. The SGSA recommends that precautions should be taken to prevent people from climbing on to roofs, pylons, hoardings and other structures. Where possible such structures should be fitted with unclimbable devices; for example, stout barriers or close-boarded enclosures.

It is also Police responsibility to prevent crime and disorder in stadiums, deal with terrorism and search spectators with criminal intent.

The experts say ground management should consult with the local planning authority and police on permissible security and anti-vandal solutions.

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF), KPL and ground (stadiums) management across the country are responsible for the safety of spectators. So, we are not saying that the problem is only the hooligans who abuse people and vandalise property. Disaster happens; people can get hurt if construction of facilities is sloppy.