Mwendwa wont resign over Chan shame

After losing the 2018 African Nations Championship hosting rights, Kenya’s football officials and the government on Monday claimed that it will bid for the  hosting rights of the Under- 17 or Under -20 World Cup events slated for 2019, despite the deadline having already transpired.

FKF however maintains that the Fifa executive committee will allow fresh bids following changes in the organisation of the tournament.

According to Fifa, the bidding process for both tournaments recently got underway, with a deadline of 7 July 2017 having been set for FIFA member associations to declare an interest in staging either of the competitions. Member associations are being given the opportunity to bid for both events, however each event will be awarded to a different host.

However, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa on Monday said he will not resign despite Kenya’s failure to stage the competition, making a U-turn on his initial declaration that he would vacate office if the Kenya failed to host the competition.He is instead eying to host a competition whose bids are already closed.

At the same time, Mwendwa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) made their decision based on the political tension in the country resulting from the annulled presidential election and unpreparedness.

“I had said I would take responsibility, but how did I contribute to this? CAF’s major issue was the political state in the country, which I have nothing to do with.

” They argued we may not be ready also in the side of stadia construction, but we gave them our timelines showing we would have been ready by mid December. You can decide to go their way or our way, but we were confident of our stand,” Mwendwa said in a strong defence of his legacy at a press briefing in the capital Nairobi.

At the same time, Sports Principal Secretary Ambassador Peter Keberia has pledged government’s commitment to ensuring that the stadia are completed before the inspections slated for February, for the double youth tournaments.

“Nothing changes as far as stadia construction is concerned. The same pace we had before losing CHAN remains, so that by the time we present our bids the stadia are ready,”  Kaberia noted.

He emphasized that  Kenya’s delegation to Ghana on Saturday where CAF announced withdrawal of the rights did their best to convince the continental football body  that “there was nothing to fear about”.

” We told them nobody is fighting the other here. I had an issue with them on this because the ruling of the Supreme Court regarding the presidential election is a constitutional matter.If it was the one to deny us CHAN then we had no choice,” Kaberia added.

No sanctions

In the meantime, Mwendwa insisted that Kenya will face no sanction from CAF, citing the fact that the political situation was beyond the federation’s control, adding that CAF cannot penalize Kenya on preparedness as the stadi would have been ready by January when the competition is slated to begin.

With Kenya’s failure, Morocco and South Africa  have  emerged as the hot favourites to claim the slot.