FKF boss Mwendwa reiterates World Cup ambition

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa Wednesday reopened his strategy blueprint to ensure the country qualifies for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Mwendwa who was receiving Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid book seized the chance to reiterate FKF’s ambitions to have the country participating at the world’s biggest football showpiece.

The FKF boss joined the ranks of African nations backing Morocco’s bid and was quick to point out parts of the structural plan his office is already putting in place to raise Kenya’s football standards to World Cup quality.

“When we got elected in 2016, we talked about the 2022 and 2026 World Cup. We are clearly working towards the dream. As we speak our Under-17 team is at the Cecafa championship in Burundi. Our Under-15 just finished its elite tournament at Juja Preparatory School and we have two centres of excellence which were not there before,” Mwendwa said at the Goal Project in Kasarani.

He added his office has worked towards promoting grassroots football and has consistently set up training clinics and referee refresher courses as part of FKF’s reform and development plan.

“Since 2016 we have trained 2000 coaches and we are already training another batch of 2000 to keep the dream alive,” he said.

Morocco is hoping to become only the second African country to host the World Cup after South Africa in 2010, but faces a stiff challenge from a joint Canada-Mexico-US bid when the vote is held in Moscow at the FIFA Congress on June 13.