Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa has alleged Comoros employed dirty tricks against Harambee Stars in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Moroni.
Kenya went on to lose the game 2-1 but Mwendwa has now claimed there were ‘tricks’ that their Group G opponents staged before matchday four action.
“I was personally warned,” Mwendwa told Radio Jambo saying he had anticipated the dirty games from Comoros.
“We were required that before anyone boards the plane one must test for Covidd-19, we did that on Thursday and we were all negative.
“But I had smelled some dirty tricks on the part of Comoros. They came on the night before the match [the first game in Nairobi] and we were supposed to test them 24 hours before the game.
“That was not possible and what we did was just to ask for their certificates which had the results of the tests they had done at their place.
“We arrived in the morning hours and no one came to see us and they waited until during the pre-match meeting that they raised the Covid-19 test issues.”
Mwendwa said the push and pull concerning the Covid-19 tests dragged on to the point that it almost forced the cancellation of the game.
“Their secretary-general had told Caf they only have one hospital in the country and all the tests must be done there. The surprise was that no one was working in that hospital on Saturday and on Sunday,” added Mwendwa.
“Before we retired to bed deep in the night, I was awoken by our officials who said Comoros demanded that all the players must be tested.
“They came in the morning again and said if there would be no tests then the game was not going to be played but we protested because I knew this was the dirty games I had anticipated.”
The local FA chief also claimed the testing kits were faulty and produced results that showed captain Victor Wanyama was Covid-19 positive.
“They did not even have proper testing kits and the available kits had already expired because the expiry date read 2019. We made complaints to Caf,” he stated.
“We agreed to test finally but as the game was about to kick-off [assistant] coach Ken Odhiambo came to me and told me the results are out and four of our players were Covid-19 positive.
“Looking at the list, Victor [Wanyama] was second and at that point, I was convinced of the dirty games on their part. I insisted that our players were negative and asked them to list for me three hospitals that the tests were carried out.
“I was ready to have the game not played even if we were to give them a walkover. Fortunately, Caf called and stated that our certificates were valid and that is how the game delayed and finally played.”
Comoros won the game and are second on the group as they search for a maiden Afcon qualification.
