Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed yesterday assured the national football team, Harambee Stars that their preparations for the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will be accorded special consideration.
The football fraternity was handed a massive blow in their bid to prepare for the new season after Amina announced that the discipline was among those classified as potential breeding zones for coronavirus hence its activities will remain suspended till further notice.
Stars are set to play Comoros in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier (home and away) in November and have consequently been lined up to host 2012 African champions Zambia next month in a friendly match. Stars head coach Francis Kimanzi had last week appealed to Amina to pronounce herself on the resumption of football activities to enable him embark on preparations for the forthcoming duels.
Amina said the Stars management is free to engage her office in a bid to draft a safe way of honouring the matches in line the guidelines which demands federations to seek clearance from the ministry.
“National Teams participating in international events in the water sports or contact sports categories will be required to seek special exemption from the Cabinet Secretary for Sports,” read part of the guidelines released last weekend.
“The federation is welcome to the office to discuss the way forward in regard to the coming matches. There is hope that the contact sports will also re-open soon,” she said.
