Stars face Yemen

By Gilbert Wandera

Kenya play Yemen in Sanaa today (Friday) even as Football Kenya defended the decision to honour the match.

According to Football Kenya chairman, Mohammed Hatimy, they are confident of learning a lot from the friendly international and dismissed suggestions that playing Yemen has no value.

"In modern football there are no longer small or weak teams. Consider what is going on at the Africa Cup of Nations finals and you will notice there are major upsets in the competition,"

"We should not just look at the ranking of Yemen. We have a lot to learn from them considering they have better facilities than we do," said Hatimy.

The FKL boss also dismissed concerns that Yemen is a dangerous country saying they cannot make the mistake of sending a Kenyan side where their security is not guaranteed.

Concerns unfounded

"Concerns over security are unfounded. We are confident that the team will be safe," he said.

There have been widespread reports of terrorist activities in Yemen and this has raised concerns over the safety of Kenyan players in the country’s capital.

Hatimy has at the same time revealed that they will earn a Sh400,000 as appearance fee for the match but were negotiating for more.

"We have been offered $5,000 (Sh400,000) plus air-tickets and accommodation but we are asking the match organisers to increase the amount to a more reasonable figure," he said.

Harambee Stars always receive twice the above figure every-time they play in the Gulf with organisers catering for their travel, accommodation and international transport costs.

The FKL chairman denied reports by Mathare United that they were given a short notice for the release of goalkeeper Duncun Ochieng.

He said: "We had made it clear even before last weekend’s friendly against Cameroon that we would play Yemen and all players we intended to call-up were aware,"

"In future it will be difficult for our coaches to call-up players whose clubs are not willing to release them."

Today’s match is the first away tie for coach Twahir Muhiddin who took over from German Antoine Hey last year.

Muhiddin said he is using the build-up to identify players he will use in the CHAN competition which kicks-off in March.

"We intend to have played at least five other build-up matches before our first competitive match against Ethiopia," he said .