In 2001, Raj Binder Singh became the first Kenyan of Asian
origin to become chairman of a major football team when he
became chairman of Gor Mahia. He became the third club
chairman in two years. His main brief was to secure
sponsorship for the club. The sponsorship never came to
fruition. Not sure why anyone thought that he would be able to
secure sponsorship
The year 2002 will go down in history as the worst in the
history of the club. They finished with a record of 3 wins, 4
draws , 12 losses and a goal difference of minus 20 goals.
Only Re-Union had a worse record. For the first time in the
club's history, Gor Mahia was relegated from the top flight.
The club had finally sunk to depths which would have been
unthinkable only 5 years earlier. The league had been divided
into two groups. Gor Mahia finished at the bottom of group B
behind other relegated teams like Pan Paper and Mombasa
Heroes. They however received a reprieve from the KFF. Even
after the reprieve, the club officials could not get their act
together and save the club from furher ignominy.
Jackson Mureu, Nick Otieno and
Benard Odhiambo celebrate an equalizing goal during a league
match. There was'nt however much to celebrate during the 2002
season and many will want to forget it quickly.
In 2003 Gor Mahia was the runner-up in the 2003 KPL
Transparency Cup cham-pionship and received from KPL a cash
award of Ksh 500,000, the largest amount ever received in the
35-year history of their club. Gor Mahia player Kenneth Omondi
received from KPL a cash award of Ksh 10,000 as their "Best
Player". Gor Mahia player Jackson Atika also received from KPL
a cash award of Ksh 10,000 for "Best Fairplay".
In 2004 at the end of the 2003-04 season, Gor Mahia had won
only two games and finished in last place but avoided
relegation when the KFF and Premier League clubs agreed to
reconcile and form a "unified league" with 24 clubs playing in
two groups with the last three clubs in each group to be
relegated at the end of the 2004-05 season.
In 2005 at the end of the 2004-05 season, Gor Mahia had won
only six matches and ended among the three last clubs to be
relegated in Group A. But on June 10th Gor Mahia Chairman
Erastus Okul convened and chaired a meeting of the “KFF
Premier League Committee” which re-jected a Kangemi United
player’s card which he had himself signed on behalf of KFF as
an acting KFF official earlier that year, declared the player
ineligible and then deducted three points from Kangemi United.
Kangemi then dropped just below Gor Mahia in the standings and
was to be relegated instead of Gor Mahia. But a higher appeals
body rejected and reversed that decision. Kangemi got their
three points back and Gor Mahia was again relegated. In August
2005 Nzoia FC dropped out of the league. The KPL clubs met and
decided to change their previous decision not to replace clubs
which dropped out. Instead the KPL clubs agreed to allow the
two highest placed clubs which had been relegated in each
group, Securicor and Gor Mahia, to play a special home/away
playoff to determine which club would replace Nzoia for the
2005-06 season. But Mr. Okul refused to allow Gor Mahia to
honour both playoff matches. As their club did report for both
matches, Securicor rejoined the league and Gor Mahia remained
relegated. In September 2005 Pipeline FC dropped out of
league. Despite the refusal of Gor Mahia to re-spect the rules
and also honour their playoff matches, the KPL clubs still
allowed Gor Mahia to replace Pipeline in the 2005-06 KPL
Premier League.
Forward Emmanuel Wakata
scored several crucial goals for Kogalo in 2005
Gor Mahia spent much of 2006 engaging in fights with KPL.
Chairman Erastus Okul adopted an antagonistic and
confrontational attitude towards KPL. To make matters worse,
some KPL officials were indeed trying to kill the club in the
mistaken belief that the demise of Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards
would herald a new dawn for Kenya football. At one point, the
club refused to pay a KPL imposed fine. KPL Managing Director
received full payment of the Gor Mahia penalty from an
anonymous "senior official of another KPL club" who wrote in
an unsigned letter that "it is deeply disappointing that a few
colleagues who are senior Gor Mahia officials refuse to
respect the KPL policy against assaults on referees which
their representative approved in February. Their refusal to
respect the rules also saddens me because it is not those
officials but their own players who are suffering the most
after playing so well this year. Out of respect and sympathy
for the Gor Mahia players, I enclose full payment of Ksh
45,063 so they can resume playing …"
KPL Thus allowed the club to resume playing. But the
belligerent Okul refused to allow the club to play and
proceeded to skip 3 succesive matches. KPL thus relegated the
club again. It came at a time when Gor Mahia were doing well
in the league and likely would have finished amongst the top
3. Striker Ken Oliech was amongst the top 3 scorers in the
league. The primary losers in Okul's ego tripping were
ofcourse the fans and the players whose valiant efforts were
wasted by officials.
Ken Oliech in action against
AFC Leopards circa 2006
In 2007 KFF decided to set up their own league, KFF PL, in an
effort to dismantle the KPL. Gor Mahia and relegated teams
Shabana, Kangemi and AFC Leopards were added to make the
league consist of 20 clubs. FIFA intervened to unify KFF-PL
and KPL. Whereas KPL wanted Gor Mahia relegated, Jerome
Champagne insisted that Gor Mahia remain in the league. The
season ended with Gor Mahia finishing 11th out of 16th. 2008
heralded a new era for the club when Ambrose Rachier was
elected Chairman. The years between 2001 and 2008 had been by
far the worst for the club. The entry of a new set of
officials was indeed seen as a breath of fresh air by fans who
deperately wanted a forward thinking chairman with ideas for
how to return the club to past glory. In 2008, Gor Mahia won
the Presidents cup after beating Posta Rangers 2-0 in the
final, thus earning the right to play continental football for
the 1st time in about a decade.
Kogalo pose with the
Presidents cup
So in 2009, Gor Mahia sought to star a fresh. Coach James
Sianga went about recruiting young players to build a team for
the future. In came players like Ibrahim Kitawi, George
Odhiambo, Duncan Owiti, Chris Wekesa amongst others. Kogalo
played APR of Rwanda in the 1st round of the CAF cup. The
young players some ofwhom were still in secondary school were
clearly overawed by the occasion. Their stage fright and
inexperience showed as they lost by 5 clear goals. Gor Mahia
however went on to play a stormer of a second leg in the KPL
that saw them go from 10th position to 5th. George Odhiambo
now dubbed "Blackberry" was voted young player of the year by
a panel of journalists and along with Peter Opiyo, Julius
Owino and Ibrahim Kitawi, was named to the national team.
In 2010 Kogalo started the season with two coaches; Gideon
Ochieng 'Agido' was the headcoach and former full back
Zedekiah Otieno was designated as the Technical Advisor. That
arrangement did not last long as it reportedly caused
divisions in the camp and most players sided with 'Agido'. As
the clubs top brass wanted Zico, Agido was sidelined in mid
season. Gor Mahia went on to play strongly in the second leg
of the league and came within a whisker of winning the league.
The league winner was determined on the last day of the league
and Gor Mahia finished second behind Ulinzi Stars. At the end
of the year, George Odhiambo 'Blackberry' , who had played 3
stellar seasons for Gor Mahia and finished second in KPL
scoring, secured a 4 year contract with Danish top tier side,
Randers FC. Odhiambo was also voted KPL player of the year.
From a financial perspective, 2011 was a landmark year because
that was the year that Gor Mahia secured a shirt sponsorship
for the first time ever. Previously in 1991, Gor Mahia wore
shirts emblazoned "International Casino". However the proceeds
from that sponsorship are unknown and clouded in mystery. The
Tuzo sponsorship was the most lucrative by any club in Kenya.
Edwin Lavatsa, Eric Masika,
Anthony Akumu, Kevin Omondi and Chris Wekesa flash their new
shirt sponsors
Also in 2011, Gor Mahia won the local cup, now called the FKF
cup after beating Sofapaka 1-0 in the final thanks to a goal
by Edwin Lavatsa. Gor Mahia thus qualified for the CAF
Confederations cup.
The beginning of 2012 was a tumultous time for Gor Mahia. In a
bid to strengthen the team, the club went on a signing spree.
Unfortunately, the signing was being directed by members of
the executive council and not by the technical bench. A
Nigerian by the name of Felix Nwosu, who called himself
"Felixinho" suddenly showed up at the club's training ground
and expressed interest in joining the team. He claimed to have
played for Enugu Rangers. A section of fans were excited.
However soon coach Anaba Awono expressed dissastisfaction with
Nwosu saying he was an average player not worth signing. Nwosu
then sent a series of threatening SMS messages to Awono. A few
days later Nwosu was dismissed. Another signing that did not
pan out was that of Anthony Otieno Nyangor who had been signed
after putting on a stellar display against Gor Mahia during
the club's tour of Kisumu county. He soon earned the nickname
"Ballotieno". Four other players were signed including George
Midenyo, Hugo Nzoka, Ivo Mapunda Yusuf Juma and Rama Salim.
Gor Mahia started the season
disastrously, losing 4-0 aggregate in the opening round of the
CAF cup to Ferroviario of Mozambique. They also played poorly
in the league. By the time the league was six games old, Gor
Mahia were in the relegation zone. It turned out that much of
the poor performance was due to infighting within the bloated
technical bench and the Executive committee. In a bid to stem
the tide of poor performance, the club sacked the entire
technical bench including Coach Anaba Awono, former captain
Julius Owino, team manager Ouma Ole Tunda and assistant coach
Ken Odhiambo.
Fans confronted coach Anaba Awono
after another poor performance this time against Karuturi
sports
Legendary stopper Bobby Ogolla took over as coach on a interim
basis, assisted by Tom Ogweno. Two weeks later, Croatian coach
Zdvarko Logarusic was appointed as coach.
Logarusic soon overhauled the team getting rid of almost a
dozen players including Demonde Selenga, Hugo Nzoka and later
Dan Makori and Ibrahim Kitawi. The arrival of Logarusic caused
a change in fortunes for the team. Gor Mahia went through a
stretch of a dozen games where they did not loose. By
September, Gor Mahia were amongst the league leaders. By the
last match of the year, Gor Mahia were leading with only a
game left. They needed to beat Thika United in the last game
to clinch the league. However they were held to 1-1 draw and
ended up finishing second to Tusker.
Having narrowly lost the league in 2012, Gor Mahia started the league in determined fashion in 2013. And with coach Logarusic enforcing discipline and professionalism both on the field and amongst officials, Gor Mahia for the first time in many years started the season with stability. It was not without drama however; Gor Mahia announced with much fanfare that they were signing a Brazilian by the name of Giovanni Rodriguez Bissolli. However when the Brazilian arrived he was out of shape and clearly out of his depth. He was soon shown the exit by Logarusic who claimed that the Brazilian was lonely. Still Gor Mahia started the league well and by the halfway point , they were leading the league thanks largely to a solid defence in which goalkeeper Jerim Onyango stood tall along with David Owino, Donald Mosoti, Musa Mohamed and Ugandan Israel Emuge.
However drama ensued as Logarusic declined to return from his vacation during the halfway break of the league. He was fired and promptly replaced by former Uganda Cranes coach Bobby Williamson. Gor Mahia suffered another blow when influential attacking midfielder, Rama Salim who had been Gor Mahia's second leading scorer for the past 2 years left for Al Markiya of Qatar.
Neverthless, Williamson soon brought stability. Ugandan Striker Dan Sserunkuma went on a tear during the last stages of the league, scoring in virtually every game. Gor Mahia held on to their league despite a determined chase by arch rivals AFC Leopards and went on to win the league for the first time in 18 years.
