Be level-headed in football audit

I hate losing. As a person who has spent decades around the game, nothing annoys me more than losing.

But also as a person who has been around the game so long, I have learnt that it is important to keep your head even when results are not going your way. Losing a game is bad enough, there is no need to lose your mind as well.

Ever since Harambee Stars lost to Mali , there has been an outpouring of disappointment and even anger which is fine, but let’s not dwell in that space or we will lose more than just three points.

I have seen reactions, some even in the newspapers, and they honestly make me sad. I have seen people say that football in Kenya is dead or is in the ICU and I ask myself: what football are we talking about? What about the Harambee Starlets? Have you seen their results? 15-1 against South Sudan and going strong!

The national team is a representation of our footballing hope as a country but it is not football in Kenya.

I can understand fans having that view but I have seen a legion of former players, administrators and media commentators suggest the same thing. I think as stakeholders in the game –those who know better, should speak better.

I have even heard someone asking for a Fifa ban so that Kenyan football can put its house in order and I think that is a naïve and dangerous view because the person making that claim is operating from a very narrow view of football.

The national teams are the tip of the spear but they are not the game in the country. There is an entire edifice of football underneath the national teams that should not be summarily dismissed based on the performance of the national team.

I am not suggesting that the performance of the national team is not important, it is, but so too are other stakeholders in the game.

I am, for instance writing this piece from Kilifi County at a place called Moving the Goalposts –a girls only football academy that uses football to empower young women.

I am here as a coaching instructor running a course with 26 female coaches. Whether people will admit it or not FKF is working, quietly.

I have been to counties like Garissa, Marsabit and Samburu where they love football.

Since Nick Mwendwa came into office, more than 4,000 coaches have been trained across the country. This alone can create a generational change in the quality of Kenyan football.

In the decades I’ve been in football, I haven’t seen this kind of effort. A coach is the pillar of the game. It is easy to sit behind a keyboard and throw words around without having a complete picture.

Mob justice is easy, but we should give Kenyan football the benefit of a fair hearing. There are thousands of clubs in various leagues countrywide and women’s football is being revived. 

Lastly, do we understand what a ban means? It means no Kenyan can move from one club to another across the world and no Kenyan team can participate in CAF or Fifa competitions.

I hate losing, but let’s keep our heads. Football is bigger than Harambee Stars and even Nick Mwendwa and whether you like him or not.

The writer is a former Harambee Stars coach and a Fifa certified coaching instructor