When the Pensioners from Zambia snatched the late goal, four minutes to the final whistle courtesy of Daniel Akodo’s thunderbolt, the faces of the players told it all, they had squandered the best chance to set themselves up for the group-stage slot.
The players knew it will be a difficult task for them to get a good result away, considering their last away match in the Champions League, they shipped in six goals against Algerian giants CR Belouizdad, who later beat them 2-1 in Nairobi to progress 8-1 on aggregate.
Looking at Gor Mahia’s past record in the Caf competitions, they have always built their qualification passage, while playing at home.you remember them beating Egyptian giants Zamalek 4-2 at Kasarani Stadium?
Goal on Tuesday.
“Gor Mahia tried each and everything possible mean to secure a flight to Algeria, there is evidence they secured visas on time, there is evidence they had tickets which they could have used to fly Nairobi to Doha on Sunday, there is evidence they had already done a hotel reservation in Algiers and there is evidence they wrote to CRB on December 9, which was never answered.
“On December 9, they gave CRB the opportunity as required by the regulation that the team could fly to Tunis, then CRB organizes to charter a flight to Algiers, which did not work.
Aduda, who contested for the presidential seat and lost during the past FKF elections, has now told
Goal that Kenya has competent referees capable of handling such situations and gave an example of a recent Caf Champions League match between Simba SC of Tanzania and Plateau United of Nigeria which was officiated by Kenyan officials in Tanzania.
“I don’t support the idea [to hire foreign referees], we already have top qualified referees in the country who can do the job,” Aduda told
Goal. “It is unfortunate for the federation to think along those lines, I don’t think it is necessary to take such a decision.