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Kenya: Soccer - Federation Now Turns to KPL to Redeem Stars'
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The Nation (Nairobi)
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Charles Nyende
Nairobi
A new Harambee Stars management board has been formed to oversee the organisational, technical and financial management of the national football team in the 2010 World Cup-cum-African Nations Cup campaign.
The board will be co-chaired by the Kenya Football Federation chairman Mohammed Hatimy and the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) chairman Bob Munro.
It will consist of members drawn from the KFF and KPL national executive committees, KFF secretary Sammy Obingo and KPL managing director, Jack Oguda.
The Sports Stadia Management Board's chief executive officer and a Government representative will be invited to join the board.
The management board was formed Thursday following a meeting between top leaders of the KFF and the KPL.
The meeting was urgently convened to try and rescue the desperate situation the KFF found themselves in with no money to put together a Harambee Stars team for the 2010 World Cup campaign that begins on May 31 with an away tie against Namibia.
In a quick effort to arrest the situation, the meeting resolved to convene a meeting of all the 16 KPL head coaches on Monday, who will then pick the Harambee Stars coach from amongst themselves.
The chosen coach will thereafter select his technical bench. Another group of five coaches will be selected to act as advisors to the technical bench.
The board will also pick the Stars team manager on Monday.
A statement signed by KFF chairman, KFF secretary, KPL chairman and KPL managing director said the league body had agreed to urgently advance the funds needed for the national team to assemble and start training next week and to bring to camp key players who are featuring in other leagues abroad.
"The new board will explore the setting up of a special marketing board of prominent corporate leaders to spearhead a national fund raising campaign," the statement said.
The board will request the government to consider matching contributions in kind or cash to what is raised from companies and the public.
The meeting approved a fund raising target of Sh30 million, part of which will go towards a new performance bonus of Sh20,000 for any fielded player, Sh10,000 for any other player in the squad and Sh40,000 for officials, for every match won in the 2010 campaign.
The KPL has already advanced the KFF Sh400,000 that was used on Wednesday to clear the new Harambee Stars uniform, boots and other equipment from the customs department.
The consignment is from the KFF/Adidas contract announced this year by the federation.
"Our top clubs met last Saturday and unanimously agreed it would be a devastating blow for our best players, for the hopes of millions of fans and for the international sporting reputation of our country if Harambee Stars did not take the field next month," Munro said.
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He added: "Although the KPL funds are really needed to help our clubs survive, we decided that our national team must take priority and agreed to advance the funds needed to get the team started."
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