Stakeholders urge Mombasa county govt to support struggling teams

Football stakeholders in Mombasa have called on the county government and other corporates to come out and aid struggling two National Super League teams from the region.

This is after Coast Stima dished out a walk-over during the weekend when they failed to travel to Kirinyaga to face Fortune Sacco with Modern Coast Rangers having less players in their home match this week against Mt. Kenya United where they lost by 2-1.

According to former FIFA referee Khamis Baghazaly, the Hassan Joho led county government should at least sponsor the two teams which represent the face of Mombasa in the second tier league in the country as Coast target a second team in the FKF Premier League.

“Most teams in these national leagues are sponsored by the county government but Mombasa is just leaving teams suffer,” lamented Baghazaly.

At the same time Baghazaly has appealed to the corporate world to give back to the Mombasa community by sponsoring only the two teams which risk relegation.

“We are busy fighting for a second slot for a Coastal team in the top tier while our teams cannot even travel for matches and we have many companies here.”

Ken Onukho, Coast Stima team manager, speaking on their failure to travel said that they could not raise the money required and they are not sure if they can host their three home matches remaining before the end of the first leg.

“Every home match the expenditure is Sh 30,000 so we need around Sh 100,000 for the three home matches which we do not know if we will play,” said Onukho.

Stima’s misery started last year when KPLC withdrew their sponsorship to all three football teams they were sponsoring, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, with Western Stima and Nairobi Stima also affected.

The Hussein Madaga’s coached side is currently 11th on the log with 22 points as Rangers occupy 14th place with 19 points after 17 rounds of the league.