Caf Champions League: Tusker in better position to perform - Lilumbi

Former AFC Leopards national organising secretary Timothy Lilumbi has stated Tusker could have a successful campaign in the Caf Champions League.

The Brewers took the ticket to represent Kenya in the continental competition after they ended the month of June while at the top of the Football Kenya Federation Premier League table.

This after the FKF had given the June 30 deadline for teams to fight for the Champions League slot and after the 2016 league winners emerged at the top, Lilumbi believes the team has the quality to do well.

Multi-billion sponsorship

"Tusker are being sponsored by a multi-billion company, so financial problems will not be an issue, as opposed to teams like Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, who solely depend on sponsors' money. They will not struggle because they have a budget from the sponsor," Lilumbi told Goal.

Although the former Ingwe official thinks the Ruaraka club is in good shape to mount a competitive campaign, he pointed out areas that coach Robert Matano must work on in order to realise the dream.

"Matano will have to get experienced players because Caf competitions are entirely different competitions," he added.

"There is a different way of approaching these matches and they have to get some experience because the matches will be different from what they have been getting from the likes of Kariobangi Sharks and AFC Leopards.

"One must have the mental strength and I have experienced this because I have been there and saw so many things when I was at AFC Leopards."

Tusker FC.

Lilumbi, however, faulted the FKF for their June 30 deadline: "It was a very bad move," he continued.

"We had Covid-19 not only in June and we have been playing football with this pandemic for over one year. There should be no blame for the pandemic and it would have been different had the leagues been stopped, but that was not the case.

"The league is going on and so citing the Covid-19 pandemic is diversionary."

Tusker will be returning to the continental competition for the first time since being part of the competition after winning the 2016 Premier League title.