Nairobi City Stars captain Anthony Kimani has expressed his concerns over the delayed Kenyan Premier League kick-off.
Kimani said the situation is destabilising the players mentally.
“We have been in training for weeks now and all the players are in good shape. Friendly games have have helped the new signings blend in. I believe almost all clubs have been ready for the long overdue kickoff,” said the veteran midfielder.
Initially, the FKF Transition Committee announced the league would start on September 10 but this was moved to September 24. However, this never came to be, again. A new date is yet to be fixed.
Most KPL teams started their pre-season three months ago in readiness for the league kick off.
“We face a situation where some teams have trained for over three months. Each time you play a friendly game it’s an anticipation of something bigger, a league game, which we are unsure of. We hope the league will start soon,” noted Kimani.
Following the reinstatement of the Football Kenya Executive Committee by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, there are hopes that the league would kick off later this month or in early December.
However, FKF are yet to give a roadmap for the resumption of the leagues.
Meanwhile, National Super League side Shabana will be forced to continue playing home games away from their Gusii Stadium home ground.
Even though Governor Simba Arati assured club officials that the stadium will be ready ahead of the new season, no work has been undertaken.
The inner perimeter fence is yet to be done while the playing surface is in a poor state.
“The stadium is in bad shape. The playing surface will take months to fix while the drainage done is poor. I don’t want to talk about the perimeter fence. Shabana will have to wait for at least four months,” a county official told the Star.
Arati recently announced he has allocated Sh38 million in the supplementary budget to complete the works at the stadium.
Due to the unavailability of Gusii Stadium for more than one year, Shabana used SoNy Stadium in Awendo, Kericho Green Stadium, Migori Stadium, Narok Stadium and Bomet Stadium as their home grounds last season.
