Former AFC Leopards organising secretary Timothy Lilumbi has said any move by the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to handpick Kenya's Caf qualifiers will generate problems.
With football activities not going on because of the current coronavirus pandemic, there has been public debate on how the FKF will select Kenya's representatives for the Caf tournaments should the league and Shield Cup matches fail to resume.
The Kenyan Premier League (KPL) winner is destined to earn a Champions League slot while the Confederation Cup qualifier is always the winner of the domestic cup.
AFC Leopards are among the teams which had qualified for the Shield Cup quarter-finals, and Lilumbi, says any move to handpick the continental qualifiers will do injustice to Ingwe.
“AFC Leopards have invested a lot in the Shield Cup and want to make sure we play in the continental matches and if a boardroom decision will be used to pick one team, I think, frankly, that will generate problems,” Lilumbi told Goal.
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The forme Ingwe official, however, said should the federation decide on one team as Kenya's representative, then that team must have enough financial muscle.
“In any case, a team has to be picked, FKF must look at teams which have the capacity to travel and honour matches Africa-wide. We have teams maybe from the nationwide league (NSL) which, honestly, have no capacity even to fly to Rwanda,” he added.
“A team with a real capacity to represent the country better should be the requirement FKF must consider before everything else.
“That is the truth, however, painful it is.”
On which teams should represent the country in the Champions League, Lilumbi feels the top three KPL teams should be considered.
“Deciding on the Champions League, let them pick one from Gor Mahia, Tusker and Homeboyz as these are the teams which were fighting for the league title,” he continued.
"Normally, if the matches are still many and the points between the leader and the second team are more then, deciding a champion will be easier. But, if the second and third teams are so close to the leader then deciding the champion will be hard.”
Lilumbi, however, calls for patience before rushing to make decisions that might remain unpopular in the end.
“FKF and KPL should hold on a little because even established leagues are yet to find formalities of ending their competitions if resumption will not be possible,” he suggested.
“[They] should hold on a little because even established leagues are yet to establish formalities of ending their competitions if resumption is not possible.
"England, Italy, Germany and Spain have all made a decision, so there is no need to make such a rush from our side lest we end up making very unpopular judgements.”
“If we can wait for a little it would be better.”
KPL was suspended when it was about to reach the 24 matchday actions while the Shield Cup was headed to the quarter-finals.
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