We need to stop cheering others and plan for 2030 tourney

Kenya must move beyond fan culture and invest in long-term football development.[Adidas Football, Instagram]

Every four years, Kenyans throw themselves into the World Cup with a passion that is frankly embarrassing given one inconvenient truth: we are never actually there.

We paint our faces in Argentina’s blue and white. We stay up until 3am wearing yellow for Brazil. We argue about tiki-taka in matatus. We mourn when England exits. The obsession is not the problem. The problem is what it reveals. We have all the love for football in the world. We have very little of it left for the Harambee Stars.

The 2030 World Cup changes the stakes. The tournament will be jointly hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.

For the first time, a World Cup will touch three continents simultaneously. An African nation will host the planet’s biggest sporting event. That African nation is not Kenya. Kenya could be playing in it, but can we make it happen?

We missed qualification for the 2026 World Cup and our return to Afcon in 2027 will only come because we are co-hosts.

We have ingredients for a competitive national team. Players like Job Ochieng at Real Sociedad, Collins Sichenje at FK Vojvodina, Richard Odada at UTA Arad, and Ryan Ogam at Wolfsberger AC provide a growing core of Europe-based professionals. 

This is encouraging. But a handful of players scattered across European second and third-division teams does not build a World Cup squad. That requires a system, not just individuals. 

Morocco did not become Africa’s best team by accident. They became Africa’s best team by design, through 20 years of unglamorous structural investment. They built youth academies. They developed a clear national playing philosophy. They created a domestic league worth playing in.

The reward was a 2022 semi-final that left the continent breathless, and now a home World Cup in 2030. That arc did not happen in one election cycle. It happened because Moroccan football decided that winning over 10 years mattered more than celebrating average results today. Kenya can choose the same path. 

The government has 60 stadiums under construction and has set aside funds for 37 sports academies across the country. That is the right language. But a stadium without a structured youth league feeding into it is just a very expensive parking lot.

Kenya’s youth academies, grassroots leagues, and regional competitions remain chronically underfunded. Coaching standards vary, scouting networks are inconsistent, and many promising players drift away into education or other careers. Talent does not disappear at the equator. Our marathon runners dominate the world not because running is easier than football but because we built structures, culture, and belief around it. We have never done the same for football. 

In December 2025, Fifa lifted development funding restrictions on the FKF following demonstrated improvements in governance. That money is now available. The question is whether FKF will spend it on football development or on football politics.

Kenya should also be cautious about over-relying on diaspora recruitment as a shortcut. Naturalise eligible players abroad, yes, but simultaneously build the domestic pipeline that makes them unnecessary in ten years.

The World Cup teaches the same lesson every four years. The teams that go furthest are not always the most talented. They are the most organised, the most cohesive, the most purposeful. Kenya has the passion. Now we need the patience and the plan to match it.