'I don't want AFC Leopards to win league and suffer 6-0 loss' - Shikanda taunts Gor Mahia

AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has set his sights on winning the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League as well as the Confederation of African Football (Caf) title before retiring.

The Kenyan giants have never qualified for any Caf competition's group stage and the last time they tasted the league title was way back in 1998. The former striker was elected as the Ingwe chairman in June 2019 and in his first season, the club went on to finish sixth on the table despite the financial challenges faced.

"I want to retire after I win the Caf title with AFC Leopards and do not want to win the league to go lose 6-0," Shikanda told Goal, referencing the recent outcome of the Caf Champions League game between their bitter rivals Gor Mahia and Algerian outfit CR Belouizdad.

The Kenyan champions fell 6-0 to the North Africans who scored their goals through Amir Sayoud, who scored a hat-trick, Hamza Bellahouel, Larbi Tabti, and Maecky Ngombo during a thoroughly one-sided display. The former Sofapaka striker stated the off-pitch matters were too much for the East African outfit.

"We have a strong squad and I know we will soon conquer Africa. I do not want to laugh at Gor Mahia but we do not want to go out there and lose 6-0. 

"I know I will win the league title soon and also conquer Africa but I do not want to go and lose by a [humiliating margin]."

The 13-time league champions have started the season on a high and have managed to collect nine points from their opening four games. The only loss came against Western Stima.

The team's interim coach Anthony Kimani went on to explain why his team fell to the Powermen.

"I think we had a good performance but not the result we expected, we started the game very well, created several chances but we were not able to utilise our chances and again we also lost concentration at a very vital moment of the game, we got punished and we were not able to pick ourselves from that particular point," Kimani told Leopards online TV

"We lacked the urgency that we wanted and we also were not able to be as mobile as we wanted to be, we were not able to run in the right spaces because they were playing very compact.