According to Odhiambo, who was the assistant coach to previous national team coach Engin Firat, most of the balls being provided by teams in the top-flight are of low quality and can only be bought from supermarkets.
A fuming Odhiambo gave the thoughts after Bandari secured a hard-fought 1-0 win against Sofapaka in their matchday 20 fixture at Mbaraki Sports Club on Saturday, February 8th.
Flashscore understands that during every matchday in the Kenyan top-flight, the away team provides a specific number of balls, the same as the home team but the home team further provides corner flags and the substitution board.
If the away team provides five balls, then the home team will provide the same number meaning 10 balls will be available for use during the match.
Kenyan league suffering because of low quality balls
According to Odhiambo, the Kenyan league will remain stagnant or even sink deeper unless something urgent is done to provide quality balls during matches.
“And then the quality of balls that teams are providing for matchday, balls from supermarkets and you want them used for a Premier League game? What kind of a Premier League is this that we are playing using supermarket balls?” a fuming Odhiambo posed a question.
“It is not possible, we must get quality balls for our matches, if you want everyone to enjoy football, bring quality balls, the recommended size five and you will see entertaining football, the balls we use don’t go far when you kick them because they don’t take enough pressure, and then we are allowing such things to happen, in a top-level league.”
Odhiambo continued: “It is not good for our game, it is not good for the development of our game, we should change some things and we must start with these match balls, they are not good enough and most of the teams don’t have quality matchday balls.”
‘Quit the league if you can’t afford quality balls’
Odhiambo called on teams that are fond of providing substandard balls to quit the league altogether and venture into other businesses.
The former Sofapaka coach further added that for the Kenyan league to develop the issue of every team purchasing quality balls for matchday should not be negotiable.
“If your team doesn’t have money to buy quality balls then you don’t deserve to play in the Premier League, just exit, if you don’t have money it is better you stay at home, what are you going to do in the league if you don’t have money?” added Odhiambo.
“Better stay at home and go sell groceries, and if you don’t have money, let those teams that have money play in the league because it is wrong, the quality of football is deteriorating because of the quality of balls that we are using, others are size five but the pressure in it is not enough, even when the ball is kicked it can’t go beyond 10 metres.
“Those are some of the things that if we want our league to develop, we should not assume, we should not close our eyes, these are the kind of things that are finishing our football, low quality balls, the poor state of match venues, those are some of the things bringing down our beautiful game and the early we improve on them, the better.”
The win against Sofapaka enabled Bandari to jump to fifth on the 18-team league table with 32 points from 20 matches. They have won eight matches, drawn eight and suffered four defeats.
Premier League clubs must be managed professionally
Meanwhile, former Nairobi City Stars coach Nicholas Muyoti has urged the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) office led by President Hussein Mohammed, to wake up and make sure they bring sanity into the game.
The former AFC Leopards and Harambee Stars midfielder believes the time is now for Kenyan clubs to be managed professionally through the guidance of FKF to avoid go-slows by players over unpaid salaries and allowances.
“Our football federation has its mandate to make sure that football is run smoothly throughout the country courtesy of its members, the branches, teams, players, coaches and referees. It is time for members to wake up and make sure sanity is brought back in our game,” offered Muyoti.
“We must make sure that our teams start being managed professionally, the federation has already given guidelines through club licensing, and can we start following what is demanded in the document? Players need to be paid their salaries and allowances on time, it is the duty of clubs to make sure this is done, we can get maximum performance from them if their welfare is taken care of well.”
Muyoti, who was a former Kenya captain best remembered for lifting the Castle Cup trophy in 2002, continued: “Coaches association, we need to have one body representing all the coaches in the country, can we start making efforts to make sure this is done? Coaches need to come up with a style of play that suits our country, this should be done as soon as possible, it is important that we have an identity.”
He further gave advice on what needs to be done to referees to avoid them being compromised during matches.
“Referees, you know what they have been through the years, can something be done to make sure they can do their job with due diligence? They must be paid well and on time to avoid being compromised.”
Muyoti, who played in Singapore for Sporting Afrique during the 2006 S-League, concluded: “There is a lot of work to be done, we can not only depend on the federation to do it, members must put their act together and make sure they play their part. All stakeholders must come together and support the federation, we have lost many years, but I can assure you all is not lost.”
After Singapore, Muyoti moved to Churchill Brothers for 2006, the captain was man of the match as they drew with Sporting Clube de Goa 1-1 despite earning a yellow card which left him out for the 11th round.
