It’s race against time for Gor Mahia

Gor Mahia FC right winger Jaques Tuyisenge during first round match of the CAF Champions league against Esperance of Tunisia on March 7, 2018 at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos County. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The football gods must have a soft spot for Kenyan Premier League champions Gor Mahia.

K’Ogalo were last week knocked out of the Champions League by Tunisian giants Esperance and with that went their dream of bagging the Sh54 million bounty as they were relegated to the Confederations Cup.

But the KPL champions now have another chance to get their hands on at least Sh27 million in the Confederations Cup.

However, they must first defeat South Africa’s SuperSport United in a two-leg fixture.

The Kenyans will be guaranteed the loot once they qualify for the group stages of the tournament. The Sh27 million is half of what they would have earned if they had knocked out Esperance.

Gor Mahia will host the first leg on April 8, according to the draw conducted by Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Wednesday night.

Going into the match, Gor assistant coach Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno said the draw was fair to his side and that his players were confident of getting something positive from the match.

“It is a fair draw for us. There is no way you can win the trophy without playing such teams,” he said.

Having played four continental matches before next month’s Confederations Cup fixture, Otieno said his squad was ready for the South Africans.

“The players are more confident now and the technical bench knows who can do what in the playing unit and this has helped us a lot.

“As a matter of fact, the hostile environment we were exposed to against Esperance has just made everyone in the team much stronger mentally,” he said.

The Gor Mahia players and technical bench were pelted with stones and water bottles during their match against Esperance and the club’s officials said they would file a formal complaint with Caf over the mistreatment.

No Kenyan club has ever made it to the group stages of Caf tournaments. For seasons on end, they have been missing out on the huge financial incentives that come with qualifying for the groups.

Gor Mahia Chief Executive Lodvick Aduda has urged the Government to help the team, which he said aimed to qualify for the group stages of the tournament.

Aduda, who said the team was grateful for the air tickets they got in their previous international assignments, added that more help was needed. The club has no sponsors.

“So far we have spent Sh10 million for the four matches and the tickets we got from Government came in handy. Now we need them to do more because we are representing the country in this tournament,” he said.

Gor Mahia pays all expenses related to match officials when they travel. The club has been affected by the withdrawal of SportPesa as the title sponsors of the league.