AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has given reasons why his team turned up to play the remainder of the FKF Cup semi-final against Kenya Police having threatened a boycott.
AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has explained that his team decided to honour their abandoned FKF Cup semi-final against Kenya Police to avoid a ban.
The match was abandoned in the 60th minute on Sunday after assistant referee Simon Kuria was hit by an object from the crowd and the federation decided that the final 30 minutes will be played on Monday.
However, Shikanda was not happy that FKF did not listen to his club’s pleas to have the match played at a ‘more secure’ venue and had threatened to boycott it if it was hosted still at the Police Sacco grounds.
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As it turned out, Ingwe made U-turn and showed up for the fixture, at the same venue, playing under protest as Kenya Police, who were leading 1-0 by the time of the abandonment, held on to claim the win and a place in the final.
“We have had problems with officiating for a long time and when we look at results for many matches in our league, we have seen what has been happening. It is annoying that we received a letter from the Leagues and Competitions Committee after 8pm,” a disappointed Shikanda said on Monday.
“This is after we had asked them why Kenya Police were telling us we will play the following day and have gone to camp yet we were with people from the federation who told us they would meet today [Monday] to decide after which we released our players and told them to wait until Thursday, only to be told at 10pm, there was a meeting and we play today.”
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AFC Leopards threaten to boycott abandoned FKF Cup semi-final over venue standoff
AFC Leopards have threatened not to honour the rest of their FKF Cup semi-final against Kenya Police after it was called off following an incident of hooliganism.
Shikanda added that his club made a decision to quickly assemble a team for the remainder of the fixture to avoid further punishment.
“We have come to play today just for formality because they wanted to suspend us from this tournament for three years which would have been unfair to me and the officials who will come after my term,” he went on.
“The politics of elections has also marred this fixture and we decided even if it seven players, let them come and honour the fixture but it is very sad for our football.”
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Kenya Police will now meet KCB in the FKF Cup final with the winner set to earn a ticket to represent Kenya in the CAF Confederation Cup next season.
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