Harambee Stars' coach Francis Kimanzi will not sit on the national team's bench for today's Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup match against Sudan and the subsequent Group B match against Zanzibar over disciplinary issues, the tournament organisers have revealed.
Kimanzi and part of his bench including assistant Zedekiah Otieno who received a tough reprimand were found guilty of unsporting behaviour before the kickoff of the match against Tanzania which Kenya eventually won 1-0.
The two allegedly mobilised Kenyan players not to play the match, locking them inside the room. They were protesting that three Tanzanian players did not have valid passports. They are further accused of protesting the position of match officials and 'chasing away the 4th official (Mohammed Guedi) from the dressing room
“Throughout this nasty show, your officials did not comply with Article 15(1) of the Rules and Regulations of the tournament. Francis Kimanzi, the Head coach is thus suspended from the Technical bench for two consecutive matches of this tournament and should not appear anywhere in the stadium while serving the punishment,” read part of the Organising Committee's ruling addressed to the Football Kenya Federation.
“The Assistant coach Zedekiah Otieno is hereby heavily reprimanded for his unprofessional character,” continued the ruling.
The rest of the officials were warned against “Such unsporting behavior that set bad examples to the players and painted a bad picture to other participants”.
With the federation still trying to walk the straight and narrow in the wake of damaging accusationS of misuse of funds, the last thing they needed was such gross misconduct from the coaching staff of the national team to deal with.
Kimanzi and Otieno were appointed to the Stars technical bench after the departure of Sebastiene Migne weeks after his Stars side had been eliminated in the first round of the expanded African Cup of Nations. The duos task was to help Stars to qualify for the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon as well as make a serious run to reach the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar.
The decision signed by CECAFA Secretary General Nicholas Musonye is final and is not subject to an appeal.
FKF was advised to submit to the organizing committee the list of the five officials to sit on the technical bench ahead of today's game.
