K’Ogalo mulling dishing out walkover due to unavailability of Moi Stadium, Kasarani

Gor Mahia assistant secretary general Ronald Ngala is worried that the club will be forced to dish out a walkover in the first leg of their Caf Confederations Cup quarter-finals against RS Berkane should the Moi Stadium, Kasarani remains unavailable.

Gor were shocked to learn that the facility had been booked for another event on the match day (April 7) leaving them with no other Caf approved facility to host a match of such high calibre. K’Ogalo had written to Sports Kenya to book the venue for the match but according to Ngala another entity had booked the venue three months earlier and now the administrator says the club is staring at the possibility of giving a walkover in the first leg which is flanked by extreme punitive measures from Caf.

The club was earlier thought to be pursuing the possibility of shifting the venue to Kenyatta Stadium Machakos but Ngala revealed that the facility had been cleared to host continental matches not exceeding the group stage level, an outcome which leaves them with Kasarani as the sole option.

Ngala argued that it will be difficult to convince both Caf and the visiting team to change the venue to Machakos which is way below the standards of Kasarani and should the status quo between them, Sports Kenya and the other entity remain, then the club will have to give a walkover.

“We are staring at the possibility of giving a walkover in the first leg should we fail to get Kasarani for the match. We made a timely booking only to learn that somebody else had booked the facility three months earlier which is quite understandable. We have to explore the possibility of using Machakos which can only host preliminary rounds. It will be difficult to convince Caf and Berkane to shift to Machakos. We are still in negotiations with Sports Kenya and Expo to carry out their exhibitions in the morning and pave way for us in the evening.”

Ngala further slammed Sports Kenya for failing to give sporting activities priority over other activities booked for the same venue. He also criticised them for failing to update their sporting calendars for proper planning of bookings.

“It’s a sporting facility and the top priority is to host sporting events. I wonder how the exhibition was preferred ahead of our match yet it can be booked elsewhere. There are many venues to host such. We recently saw Nyayo Stadium host a national holiday and a marathon and I believe the exhibition should be referred there.”

His sentiments were also echoed by the Gor chief executive officer Omondi Aduda who said: “This is a CAF quarterfinal match and we have no other venue to use other than Kasarani. I think the other event can be booked elsewhere.” The development comes as another blow to Gor who will miss five dependable players and coach Hasan Oktay who are all suspended for the match.