By JOHN KARIUKI
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Some unscrupulous officials from the academies have been seeking visas for their relatives and players from war-torn countries on the pretext that they have received invitations from the various youth tournaments in Europe.
Three players from the Ujuzi Academy - Jibril Said Mohamed aged 15, Shukri Ahmed, 16, and Daniel Njuguna are being sought by the Spanish Police after they disappeared during the team’s tour of Spain last month.
According to Paul Olungae, the technical director of the academy, the three, who had joined the academy a couple of years ago, are still in Madrid. “We informed the Spanish Embassy in Nairobi on arrival who have contacted Interpol. We are sure the boys will be arrested,” he said.
“We agree there is a big problem with defections, especially with players of Somali origin. At Ujuzi, we have now decided we will only be sending school teams for these tournaments.” Teams now planning to travel must adhere to child protection policies put up in place by the tournament organisers.
The tournaments must also be sanctioned by their host football associations. Oloungae agreed that this will weed out fake academies that have given Kenya a bad name.
Exorbitant fees
Parents and guardians of the players are charged exorbitant fees to cover for air tickets and accommodation. The talented players from poor families who cannot raise the funds for the trip are left out.
It’s reported that late last year, one such academy sent players for a tournament in Italy where three players were left behind to stay with relatives. The other players in the team were abandoned by the officials and were sheltered by some Kenyans living in Italy.
One of the players’ father, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that he had paid over Sh200,000 for his son after the officials allegedly promised him that they would get him an attachment with one of the leading clubs in the Serie A.
“My son returned home with bitter memories of the trip after realising that we had been hoodwinked,” he said. The embassies are requesting all football academies to get clearance from Football Kenya before applying for Visas in future.
Reacting to this development, FKL senior vice-chairman Titus Kasuve said that plans were under way to licence and regulate the academies. “We will issue guidelines on the way these academies should be run and even vet their coaching staff,” he said.
Kasuve did not name the foreign missions that have issued the appeal though Kenyan teams have been receiving invitations to foreign youth tournaments of different age categories in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Spain among other countries.