Time ripe to rethink local league calendar
What you need to know:
- The Sportspesa Premier League has taken a break and will resume on June 17.
- The mid-season break is much shorter this time round and so far only 13 rounds of matches have been played.
- Four rounds of matches still remain to be played before the first leg ends.
The Sportspesa Premier League has taken a break and will resume on June 17. The mid-season break is much shorter this time round and so far only 13 rounds of matches have been played.
Four rounds of matches still remain to be played before the first leg ends. This delay has been occasioned by the court battles between Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Kenyan Premier League at the start of the season.
It is also due to the expansion of the league from 16 teams to 18 teams which has of course increased the number of matches to be played.
These twin problems were muscled in without any proper plans and thus the source of the present backlog.
There was no proper winner in those squabbles between the two bodies and both of them are reeling from the repercussions of their own egos! We do hope that they both have learned their lessons and that we will not be treated to such folly in future.
Many other leagues in the world are winding up while ours is still in the mid season.
We do not know what combinations and permutations we can put into play so that we smoothly change our league calendar to rhyme with the rest of the world.
A case in point is the SportsPesa Super Cup which starts on Monday in Tanzania. Kenya’s representatives are Gor Mahia FC, AFC Leopards, Tusker FC and Nakuru Allstars while the Tanzanian teams’ are Simba SC, Yanga, Jang’ombe and Singida.
The winner of the Cup shall pocket Sh1 million while semi-finalists get Sh500,000 each.
The problem is that they will be required back in the country by June 15 to resume playing in the league.
The Tanzanian teams are gearing up for the new season.
The winner will play English Premier League club Everton on June 13 and that will make it hell for any Kenyan team that wins the tourney.
The schedule is tight and to make the matters worse, the teams are not at full strength. Their respective national teams are preparing for the 2019 Afcon qualifiers.
Gor Mahia is going to the tournament without players such as: Boniface Oluoch, Haron Shakava, Musa Mohammed, Ernest Wendo, Kenneth Muguna, Timothy Otieno and many others.
That is a tall order and it does not end there. Leopards are missing the services of Robinson Kamura and Duncan Otieno while Tusker will have to do without Wilkison Marlon Tangauzi and Jackson Macharia.
All these players in the Harambee Stars camp for the qualifiers.
This surely is going to affect the Kenyan teams by reducing the probability of them winning the tourney.
All this is due to the small matter of our football calendar.
It should be in sync with other leagues in the world. And international fixtures should join seamlessly with league timetable.
