Football Kenya Federation Chief Executive Officer Barry Otieno reckons Harambee Stars have what it takes to perform well in the forthcoming Fifa World Cup Qualifiers.
The men’s national team will kick off their campaign for a maiden World Cup appearance with two crunch matches scheduled for this month.
Stars are scheduled to face Gabon at the Stade De la Renovation in Franceville on November 16 before their trip to Ivory Coast where they will clash with Seychelles at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan on November 20.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Otieno expressed satisfaction with the level of the team’s preparation thus far, adding that he is confident of a good performance.
“We have prepared well enough and set the stage for a good performance. Our fine form in recent international friendlies suggest we are ripe for the task ahead,” Otieno said.
Harambee Stars stunned 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar 2-1 before crashing 1-0 to South Sudan in Nairobi a couple of days later. They then displayed great character to hold Russia to a two-all draw in their last build-up encounter in Turkey last month.
Meanwhile, the FKF honcho said they decided to skip this year’s Cecafa Under-15 Championships in Uganda to concentrate on laying the ground for other tournaments that the country has been picked to host.
The Cecafa U-15 showpiece enters the fourth day at the Fufa Technical Centre in the Eastern town of Njeru and will conclude on November 16.
The Kenyan lads had been enlisted and drawn at the regional showpiece but FKF wrote to Cecafa to exclude them from the fixtures, saying they would be unable to raise a team for the tournament.
“We shall be hosting the Pan-Africa school games in the coming weeks which involves players almost the same age. That’s why we thought it wise to concentrate all our efforts to prepare for the games,” Otieno said.
Kenya clinched the rights to host the Zonal qualifiers for the Pan-African School Championships scheduled for December 10 to 15.
Otieno revealed that all the Cecafa countries have confirmed participation.
“The Under-13 boys and the Under-15 boys and girls are among the three teams we have entered in the Pan-Africa Zonal qualifiers,” Otieno said.
“We chose not to participate in the Cecafa Under-15 competition in Uganda because we wanted to give the coaches more time to be ready for the Caf competition. Our trainers will in due course gather athletes from schools to start preparations for the championships,” he stated.
