Spare Gor officials and players the flak, they deserve kudos for a good run

I take this early chance to congratulate Gor Mahia FC for their impressive performance in continental competitions this year, a journey which sadly came to a halt at the quarter final stage following the away defeat to RS Berkane of Morocco.

While defeat in the manner and circumstances surrounding the trip to Morocco makes it more painful, we must acknowledge that the players and leadership of the club have done tremendously well and deserve a pat on the back for the great achievement.

A lot has been said about how the team travelled, with frustrations and disappointment by many a Kenyan calling out the management and leadership of the club, who they say should have done better in terms of the travel arrangements.

I agree that such assignments require meticulous planning and foresight but having the experience that I have has taught me that, often times, the officials need to be given the chance to really tell their story because nobody in their sound mind would deliberately let things be as disorganized as we may have been made to believe.

Senior Counsel Ambrose Rachier has overseen a transformation of the club to levels hitherto unimagined within a very short period of time and he is a man I know well when it comes to his organisational skills and I doubt he would have allowed this to happen.

My submission is that this must have been a situation caused by circumstances beyond his control. The delay may have been occasioned by possible procurement processes, in government, which means getting the flights to the tricky route.

The images we have seen of players sleeping at the airport were not a good sight and wise counsel has it that when connecting flights, it is normal that passengers would wait at the lounges of any airport awaiting connection time to board. It is in bad taste to suggest that the players had been abandoned when they were waiting to connect to Morocco.

We must appreciate the difficulty in running a football and seek ways of pooling together to ensure the burden of running sports in the country is lessened by ensuring we have the right structures to support corporate involvement as sponsors, while the Kenyan government and the great people of Kenya must also wake up and play their part as loyal fans who invest in their teams.

I would challenge my good friend, SC Ambrose Rachier to come out and clear the air on what the circumstances were, those led to the delayed travelling of the team to Morocco so as to get this noose that is being held around his neck.

Once again, I congratulate Gor Mahia for their achievement and wish them the very best as they retreat to the local league, which is now very competitive and pray that the best team of the Kenyan Premier League will wrestle the title from Gor Mahia who have been dominant over the last couple of years.

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