By Samson Jura
Football Kenya federation president nick mwendwa has called on government to offer more financial backing ahead of the upcoming assignments involving the harambee stars, harambee starlets as well as the emerging stars.
Football Kenya federation is in need of 83 million shillings to help fund the three national teams: harambee stars, harambee starlets and the national u-23 boys’ team make preparations for the upcoming Africa cup of nation’s tournament.
“We will have three teams in camp (Harambee Starlets, Harambee Stars, and the Emerging Stars) at around the same time, which comes along with a KES 83 Million financial obligation,” said the FKF President.
“My appeal to Government is to help us honor our liabilities to enable the teams to honor these assignments,” beseeched Mr. Mwendwa.
He further called on government to see to it that the sports fund, established under the sports act to raise funding for the development of sports, is fully operationalized as a long-term funding strategy for the national teams.
“The Sports fund has not fully been operationalized, yet it could be a long-term funding strategy for our National Teams. I understand that Parliament has given the fund the go ahead, and I am appealing to Treasury as well as the Ministry of Sports to fully operationalize it,” he concluded.
The federation will be forced to pull out the teams of the competition if the money is not availed on time.
The national u-23 team also known as the emerging stars has already been assembled and training is in progress as they await to hit camp on Sunday, ahead of their upcoming Africa u23 cup of nations qualifier against Mauritius, set to be played on Wednesday, 14 November.
Mwendwa also confirmed that the harambee starlets will be taking on Ghana and Mali in international friendly matches, before the team jets out for the Africa women cup of nations.
The senior national team, harambee stars, will also hit camp on Monday alongside the emerging stars ahead of their Africa cup of nation’s qualifier against Sierra Leone Sunday, November 18, 2018.
Stars are still making preps even though CAF is yet to make appointments in regards to the qualifiers match.