KPL official GMT Ottieno has registered his fear that Kenya will not be able to host the upcoming Chan 2018 tournament.
The country has been assured that the biennial competition will be hosted in Kenya and a number of steps have been made in line with the event but GMT strongly feels that nothing much has been done.
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Recently, the government gazetted names of Local Organizing Committee for the event at a time when Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa was also in Gabon to reassert that the country will be ready in time.
However, GMT, being an official who is conversant with the conditions of Kenya’s stadia, has told Goal that the country has no capacity to host the event and that FKF in partnership with the government should, first of all, focus on ensuring that Kenya has proper stadia before being ‘over-ambitious’ .
He vividly recalls what happened in 1996 when Kenya failed to host Africa Cup of Nations after everyone was assured that the competition was ‘coming home’ until the last minute, a thing he says is the exact replica of what will happen to Kenya again in relation to hosting Chan.
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“We are talking of hosting Chan when we have nothing. I will not be surprised if Chan is moved elsewhere just like how we lost another hosting right in 1996. You see, the government promised us five stadiums and not even one has been built. Leave alone improving those which were already there like Kisumu, Kipchoge Keino and Mombasa. And yet you find our FKF president rushing to Gabon to confirm that we are able to host the competition.
"You can take it from me, I don’t see Chan coming to Kenya because we are totally unprepared. We have absolutely nothing."
In 1996, when Kenya failed to host Afcon, a four-year ban from Confederation of African Football (Caf) followed.
