Hooliganism comes back to haunt Kenyan Football

We had thought that the days of crowd trouble were gone! We said it too soon. Yesterday, Sunday saw the monster, that is hooliganism came back to haunt our Kenyan Premier League. That was the ugly scene that brought the KPL league match between Mathare United and Gor Mahia at the Nyayo National Stadium to a premature end.

Trouble started when Gor Mahia fans accused the referee of making decisions which they thought were unfair towards their team. They threatened to rough him up and started streaming dowm the stands.

This happened when Mathare was leading by a goal to nil courtesy of a free kick scored by Austin Makacha in the first half. Gor supporters protested against what they termed as poor officiating.

The referees failed to come out of their dressing room in the second half citing insecurity. The home team is normally responsible for making sure that security measures are put in place and regular policemen available during all their Premier League matches. Gor were the home team. The match commissioner Mr Anangwe had no choice but to discontinue the game. Both teams had gone back to the field for the second half but after waiting for the whistlers for the more than 25 minutes they were told that the game had been called off.

On his part, the Mathare United Coach, Francis Kimanzi told journalists in an interview after the game how dissapointed and sad he was that crowd trouble had come back to haunt our local league. He wanted a result after 90 minutes and never expected this to happen. He urged Club supporters to stop causing abandonment of matches through crowd trouble. Kimanzi maintains a slim lead at the top of the Premier League and it seems the title will be decided in the last matches as Sony Sugar is trailing them by a point.

Now the Kenyan Premier League Independent Disciplinary and Appeals Committee on Appeals will decide on the next course of action about the match. Most likely Gor Mahia will be heavily fined for failing to arrange for security and for the trouble caused by their fans.

Instructors