Harambee Stars under pressure

By Gilbert Wandera in Jinja

Sweden-based Harambee Stars midfielder, Jamal Mohammed, admits two draws in their opening matches of the Cecafa Challenge Cup have put the team under immense anxiety.

"The truth is that we are under too much pressure as we go into the final matches," said the Eskoping midfielder at the team’s Triangle Hotel in Jinja. Mohammed said failure to score in any of the two matches against Zambia and Sudan has dampened team spirit in camp.

"A win in one of the matches would have given us plenty of motivation to progress but now we have to fight to remain in the tournament," he said.

He predicted that tomorrow’s match against Djibouti would not be a walk in the park for Stars and he is cautious about Burundi who beat them in last year’s tournament. Kenya opened her campaign with two draws against Sudan and Zambia.

The midfielder hoped either Sudan or Zambia lose at some point to give them a realistic chances of going to the last four. On a positive note, the midfielder said Stars are capable of lifting the trophy should they proceed to the last four.

"The matches we have played at the group stages were the toughest. After that we are capable of going all the way even if we meet hosts Uganda in the final," said Mohammed.

Relegated

He said he was not keen on going back to his current club after the team was relegated. He still has a two-year contract left in his club but is hoping to get leave once he identifies another team.

He admitted to having attended trials with French side AJ Auxerre but was attached to the reserve team.

"I impressed them but the age factor knocked me out. They wanted an under-20 player for this side," he said.

Now he is looking at various options among them a possible move to a Sudanese league side.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s leader of delegation Hamisi Mayoyo says they have paid all the team’s outstanding allowances until the end of the tournament.

Mayoyo said this is meant to motivate the team to concentrate on pitch matters and deliver.

"We don’t want them to think about allowances that is why it has been paid in advance. Now it is up to them to deliver," he said.

Last year, the team nearly staged a sit in during the same tournament in Tanzania after the players’ allowances were delayed.

A further motivation to the team is presence of Deputy Commissioner of Sports Maina Kamau. He has been in Uganda since Wednesday and was expected to meet team members at their hotel on Sunday.

Elsewhere the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) has been forced to reduce gate charges for the Senior Challenge Cup tournament due to poor attendance.

The association has reduced by half what it was charging fans to watch matches involving the Uganda Cranes. Fans will now pay Ush5,000 (Sh250) down from Ushs10,000 (Sh500). Gates charges for group ‘B’ matches in Jinja have also been reduced from Ush5,000 to Ush3,000.

Massive Publicity

There has been a low turn out since the tournament kicked off on Wednesday despite massive publicity to promote the GTV sponsored event.

The opening match pitting hosts Cranes against Rwanda attracted only 10,000 fans out of a possible 40,000 and even the second one against Zanzibar did not do any better as the old Nakivubo Stadium remained partially empty.