LESSONS FROM HULL: Kenyan football chiefs need to change tack

SportPesa Allstars ready for Hull City action

And so it came to pass that a team of Kenyan footballers played against an English club in a stadium owned by an English Premier League club.

If you watched yesterday evening's match between a select Hull City FC side and Kenya's SportPesa All Stars at KCOM Stadium, then you can deduce for yourself what Kenya's football fraternity can achieve, having been brought together by a corporate body for a common cause.

The match was the culmination of several months of exciting and sometimes frustrating negotiations that, unbeknown to many, sometimes threatened to derail the noble initiative.

But the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) sponsors, SportPesa, who are also the Hull City FC shirt sponsors and sponsors of Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, did not develop cold feet, but pushed on probably with the foresight that Kenyan football would be the winner.

Kenyan footballers, long used to shabby treatment when they are on national duty, were reluctant to be part of the SportPesa AllStars initiative when it was began last year because they feared they would be abandoned in camp as had been the norm.

"Many clubs were reluctant to release their players," Gor Mahia chairman and KPL boss Ambrose Rachier revealed. "Even players from my club were not willing because they feared they would be treated shabbily in camp."

If you were wondering why the All Stars squad was not filled with young blood but KPL veterans, wonder no more because these are the ones who had faith and vision, and were ready to take the plunge.

Vision is what has been lacking when it comes to running football in Kenya, but judging from what we are witnessing here, things are looking up and if the top brass of KPL and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) do not drop the ball, as a matter of writing, then more corporate entities will join them and come up with initiatives that can only help Kenyan football grow.

"This is great exposure for the players," Rachier said, adding, "we need to embrace modern corporate governance principles and have strategic plans and targets."

That the Gor chairman, who is in Hull with both KPL and FKF officials, is admitting that something has been amiss shows they are ready to embrace changes that will make corporate sponsors and players feel appreciated and not turn them away.

While some might dismiss last night's match as just a mere friendly, it was a wake-up call for KPL, FKF and even some arms of government, considering that KCOM Stadium was host to Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, FKF CEO, Robert Muthomi, FKF vice president Doris Petra, KPL CEO Jack Oguda and officials from Kenya Tourism Board, who are using sports tourism as a vehicle to market Kenya.

"We need good leadership at all levels for football to grow," Rachier said. "Even the Government must make conscious steps to pull up its collective socks when it comes to sports, otherwise such initiatives will not work."