Amina Mohamed: Football to remain suspended

Gor Mahia will need to sharpen their tactics and gell as a team before the start of the Africa champions league which begins in November. However
ports Minister Amina Mohamed has thrown a wrench in those plans when she announced that contact sports like football will remain suspended

Additional reporting from goal.com

The football fraternity suffered yet another setback as the government said the ban on contact sports will remain in force

Sports CS Amina Mohamed has confirmed football and other contact sports will remain suspended in the country until further notice.

In a statement obtained by Goal, Mohamed revealed only non-contact sports will be allowed to resume after months of suspension owing to the effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but in a phased manner.

“All contact sports [including football] will remain suspended until further notice,” Mohamed said on Friday while issuing the final guidelines to sport’s resumption. “However, all non-contact sports will reopen in a phased manner.
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“All outdoor recreation and non-contact sporting activities will re-open in a phased manner as listed in the guidelines.

“Testing of Covid-19 will not be mandatory but where required, the cost shall be met by the federations, sports organisations, participants or event organizers as applicable.”

However, Mohamed clarified national teams taking part in international events will be required to seek a special exemption from the Cabinet Secretary of Sports.

“National teams participating in the international events in the Water sports or contact sports categories will be required to seek a special exemption from the Cabinet Secretary of Sports,” Mohamed continued.

“All federations are required to submit their respective revised international team Kenya event calendars to the Principal Secretary for Sports on or before September 30, 2020, for planning purposes.

“The commissioner of sports will work with national teams and athletes representing Kenya in international events to advise and guide on national and international compliance of Covid-19 regulations before the departure and re-entry into the country.”

The latest statement means the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) may not kick off as earlier planned in October, but the Harambee Stars will be able to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers.

On Thursday, FKF president Nick Mwendwa confirmed to Goal they were waiting for the approval from the government to have the national team move to camp ahead of the upcoming assignments.

“The government has not yet given us feedback despite us having the national team games coming,” Mwendwa told Goal on Thursday.

“If we do not honour the games we will be removed from the qualifiers and the government has not responded.”

The youthful administrator further revealed plans for Kenya ahead of their assignments. The East African nation is scheduled to host Comoros on November 9 before playing them away eight days later.

“On October 10 we have a friendly game at home; actually we had planned to have two friendly matches before our home and away games against Comoros,” Mwendwa added.

“However, we are yet to confirm the teams will be playing in the build-up matches. The main thing now is for the government to give us the green light to start training.”
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Kenya started their campaign for the 2021 Afcon, to be held in Cameroon, with an impressive 1-1 draw away to Egypt. They followed it up with another draw, by the same margin, in Nairobi against Togo.

In Group G, Comoros, who started their campaign with a 1-0 win against Togo before settling for a goalless draw against the Pharaohs, lead with four points.

They have managed to score a goal, conceding none in the process.