Electrocuted

At the end of the weekend, that was the headline as Leopards were beaten 2-0 by Western Stima.

The pre-match hype had been as usual focusing on Leopards wide support in Western Kenya.





















Some columnists even called it a Western Derby. Carol Radull to her credit thought Leopards would score a goal! For the second week running, she gave her prediction as a 2-1 loss by Leopards.





















In the end, a meek Leopards succumbed 2-0 to Stima. The Standard carried the brief match report.





















Meanwhile, Mathare United pleaded with a new set of fans: the Valentine Ladies to cheer them up against Zambian 'giants' (tsk tsk) Zesco United. They lost 1-3 at home.





















Supersport announced that the Leopards versus Gor match will be televised across Africa. With the current form of Leopards, and ready excuses by the coach (see Standard report above), Ingwe Fan is not holding his breath. Nation has the report.











The only consolation is that Gor Mahia has been hit by rotten from too. They play midweek in the League but the current positions are that Gor is second last whilst AFC is third last.

And still on Gor, a new song is out. Joluo Oparo Gor Mahia. Check this Standard report out.

The Uchumi Sale

The Daily Nation carries a report today about the sale of the replica shirts of Leopards at the Uchumi Supermarket outlets. Surely there are no excuses for not adorning yourself in a Leopards jersey, probably for the very first time.








Meanwhile, the Standard carried two letters to the Sports Editor yesterday about ... yes, you guessed it... last Sundays match that still draws the ire of Leopards fans. Here are the two pieces by Simiyu Katiambo and Stephen Manyasi. Notice how these proud Leopards fans refer to the club as 'mighty' and 'big guns.'

Spare Leopards Fans the Blame

AFC Leopards members and fans, were disappointed by ugly incidents in last Sunday’s Kenyan Premier League (KPL) match between Nairobi City Stars and our mighty club.

Rowdy fans brought down the perimeter fence and stormed the pitch, forcing the match referee to end the match prematurely.

Leopards fans believe in fair play and would not behave in a manner that will undermine the game.

However, with due respect to Nairobi City Stars and the KPL, the poor condition of the Hope centre Stadium does not qualify to host such a high profile match. The stadium can only hold a maximum of 1,000 fans yet over 10,000 fans turned up for the match.

The perimeter fence in question was sub-standard and could not withstand the crowds that were obviously surging towards the pitch due to lack of space.

The hosts did not provide enough security and the few policemen provided were stationed at their cash collection points. Nairobi City Stars should be held responsible for the abandonment.

I urge KPL to stop Nairobi City Stars from hosting further matches at the Hope Centre unless the general conditions of the stadium are improved.

(Simiyu Katiambo, Nairobi)

Hope Centre Is Substandard

It is unfortunate that Kenyans only wait for tragedies to occur in order to learn.

Watching AFC Leopards/Nairobi City Stars match at Hope Centre on Sunday made me sad. From the start, I felt something was wrong. Why did people in their right senses feel a match involving big guns like Leopards can be played in such small pitches?

The stands were too small to accommodate the thousands of fans who turned up. The fence protecting fans from entering the playing area was made of wood and chain link and this put players and match officials at risk and I was not surprised when fans took only a few minutes to pull down the fence.

Security was inadequate as there were only four policemen. Are we serious or just waiting for fans to die then mourn? Do we know the chaos, emotions and passions football elicits in fans?

Such fields do not meet FIFA standards and should not host KPL matches.

(Stephen R Manyasi, Kitale)

Oh, and guys, there is a match tomorrow against Western Stima at the Bukhungu Stadium. Lest we forget!!!

3pm Kick Off

Reset your alarms!

Yes, the Kenya Premier League has announced that the Premier League matches will kick off at 3pm.

So, is this to ensure that the games are finished in good time so that the players get back to the club house before sunset? Obviously not. The cited reason is so that fans can go and watch the English Premier League matches. Sigh.

Nairobi Star

More About Hope

Two stories related to the weekend match appear in todays newspapers.

The Daily Metro quotes the KPL Managing Director as saying the Hope Centre ground had already been blacklisted. Apparently, it had been agreed in the past that when big teams were to play against NCS, they would use a different pitch.





















In the meantime, the Daily Nation quotes the NCS officials stating that only 2,000 fans had paid to enter the Ground.

City Stars general manager, Stephen Rigby, on Tuesday said post-match investigations by the club discovered three large holes that fans had created on the wire fence to enter the venue.

“We sold 2,000 official tickets for the match but as was clearly seen there were more than double that number watching the match. Most did not pay to watch what was an exciting match,” Rigby said.

By Tuesday evening, the KPL had received the referee’s report and were waiting for the commissioner’s report before making a decision.

Link

New Wine, Old Skins

Yesterday Gor Mahia let in another five goals during a friendly match against El Merreikh of Sudan. And we thought it was just military teams (APR and Ulinzi) that could beat Gor!

One of the things noted however was that Gor having recently unveiled their logo played in a kit that had their old logo. Confusing?

Well, its a case of 'pot, kettle, black' since Leopards over the weekend also did the same!













The club turned out kitted in the uniform they had first used against Gor during the Madaraka Day Cup game in 2008. Leopards had lost the match 2-1.

With the launch of the new kit and the re-branding of the club together with the sale of replica shirts, it was therefore surprising that the team turned out in the old kit, bearing the old logo. Hopefully, this one of the very few lapses that will characterize our new season.

It is bad enough for the Daily Nation (on Saturday 7th February) to use a logo of the team that has never been in use except by internet lovers having been first created at Kenyapage.com but even worse for the club to countenance this.
















Unless of course, this was just a case of having to officially say goodbye to the old skins in front of its fans. Talk about established teams having trouble to let go of something. Incidentally, the official Gor Mahia website still has their old logo. Sigh.

The Aftermath

Following the aborted match against Nairobi City Stars, some interesting views have been exchanged on Radio Jambo in respect of the 'coming down of the fence'.

Leopards fans have called in to the station and insisted that the Ground was too small and most of them were unable to follow the match.

Those who have stated that Leopards were 0-1 down of course forget that just before the incident, Leopards had the upper hand and were breathing down the necks of NCS.

Those who have stated that no further increase in the number of people who were at the Ground forget that some of us saw people getting access to the Ground through the shrubbery.

Other media have carried the following reports

Nairobi Star




















Daily Metro
















The KPL website has a story on the match.

Even if it was only on Leopards' return to the KPL after two seasons in the lower divisions, their followers were too many and perhaps too robust for the Hope Centre facility to deal with.

The modest perimeter fencing gave in to a leaning multitude in the 60th minute...

The Audacity of World Hope

We rolled into the World Hope Centre at exactly 4pm with some of us donning the new AFC Leopards replica shirts. Charges were priced at 50 shillings, 100 shillings and 250 shillings for the VIP.

With the recession in mind, we paid our 50 Shillings and were let into the stadium through the red gate and were glad and sad at the same time. Glad that AFC fans had filled the stadium (or ground or Centre or field with a chicken perimeter fence) and sad that there was barely n space for anyone to watch the game.

Almost five layers of people were crammed near the fence meaning the shortest of us had to mimic the Biblical Zacchaues to even dream of catching a glimpse of our boys.

The enterprising amongst us looked for some brick stones to stand on to view the match. The unenterprising, well, they only watched people heads!!!

At some point, some fans disgusted that they could not watch the game due to the human mass in front of them resorted to shoving those who had blocked their view. Clearly, this ground was bursting to the seems.

The first half ended goalless and yet there seemed to be more people getting into the ground through the outer fence which was a mash of foliage.

In the second half, eight minutes had barely gone when Nairobi City Stars scored against the run of play. The scorer, Bagiye was immediately booked by the referees he took off his boot and pretended to make a phone call.

Leopards made substitutions bringing on Shikanda and Njihia and they immediately turned on the sparkle.

But as the game swung in Leopards favour, the perimeter fence behind the Leopards goalkeeper gave way. The referee stopped play and in the ensuing confusion with other fans trying to find out what was happening, the fence came down and fans poured to the pitch.

The match was called off. As fans streamed out of the pitch, the red gate remained locked with a PADLOCK and it seemed no one was available to open the gate. Memories of the Nakumatt incident a few days before came to fore as it appeared the stadium management was not keen to open the gate for fear of fans entering the ground (to watch an abandoned match?) Surely!

Stadium security ought to be taken a bit more seriously to avoid incidences that may lead to lots of damage. Hard questions ought to posed. How many fans were admitted to the Ground? What is the capacity of this Ground? How many police officers were detailed to man the Ground?

If the League intends to bring out crowds to the stadia, then they better be prepared to ensure that the safety of fans is assured. Those of us who have young fans who are pre-teenhood will not wish to expose them to such dangers.

If this is not done, we will be bordering on the Hopeless situation, at a Ground that is supposed to inspire Hope.

AFC Leopards - 1. Charles Onyango, 11. Allan Ogal, 3. Collins Kisuya, 2. Robert Indimuli, 15. Charles Odawo (5. Michael Njihia, 55'), 6. Francis Xavier (captain), 10. Tafadzwa Dondo, 17. Tom Wango (8. Geoffrey Shikanda, 55'), 13. Roy Syamba, 14. Sebastian Muchera, 7. Farid Ahmed