The federation boss reveals to Goal he will not bow to the fans pressure to fire new bench saying they are building consistency
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa has openly stated he will not sack coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee and also admitted it will be hard for Harambee Stars to qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations finals after a 2-1 defeat to Comoros on Sunday.
Harambee Stars went into the match played in Moroni seeking their first win in the qualification campaign as they had drawn three of their last matches against Egypt, Togo, and Comoros.
However, they could not manage to secure a win as Comoros scored goals through Mohamed Ben El-Fardou and Mattoir Faiz to hand the Kenyan side a 2-1 defeat, with Cliff Nyakeya scoring the consolation.
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Mwendwa, who accompanied Harambee Stars to Comoros has now told Goal it will be hard for Kenya to make it to the Afcon for the second successive time and also said he will not heed to fans calls to fire coach Mulee, who was handling the team for the second successive match.
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After the match, a section of Kenyan fans took to social media to ask for the sacking of the coach, who replaced Francis Kimanzi four weeks ago, blaming his tactics for the defeat.
“We have to work hard but it is harder now for us to qualify for the Afcon,” Mwendwa told Goal on Monday. “We must keep working hard, 2016 was just like this one, but actually I can say this looks even better.
“Our target is to continue working hard, we have the World Cup and another Afcon event coming up after this so we must make sure we build a strong team for the coming events.”
Mwendwa further said Kenya will be praying that Togo beat Egypt at home on Tuesday to throw the group wide open.
“If Togo beats Egypt, then we have a lifeline because we still have two other matches coming up against them [Togo] and Egypt, so this match will be very important for us if Togo wins it.”
On whether the federation will sack coach ‘Ghost’ Mulee, Mwendwa said: “Why should we? It is normal for coaches to lose matches and ‘Ghost’ is not the first one, we are not ready to make changes now because our target is to have consistency with the team.”
Kenya will have to wait until next year to host the Pharaohs on March 22 before wrapping up their campaign with a trip to Lome against Togo on March 30.
