NAIROBI, Kenya — The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has announced that it will issue free passes to all Kenyan football legends to attend the African Nations Championship (CHAN), which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania this month.
FKF President Hussein Mohammed stated that the legends, along with their families, will be provided with accreditation to access any stadium to watch games of their choice.
“All our games, you will get preferential seating…you will get accreditation so you are able to attend the football games without any hassle…and that you are given the due recognition that you deserve. We will do an accreditation process so you can attend any game you want to attend with your families,” Mohammed said.
The FKF president explained that this initiative is the minimum the federation can do for the legends who have contributed immensely to Kenyan football through their past performances. He noted that improving the welfare of former players is a key pillar of his manifesto, which he has already begun to implement.
“In our manifesto, we said we want to deal with three things: the past, present and the future. With the past,we have to look at the welfare of former footballers. We have to develop robust programmes to avoid situations we have been in the former years. I am glad to report that at the end of this year, we are going to operationalise the Hall of Fame at the federation…where we will have an archive and document the history of all footballers,” he said.
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Mohammed also outlined plans to establish a pension fund to address the needs of footballers after they retire from their careers.
“We will come up with programmes of ensuring that retired footballers will have some kind of a pension or a SACCO to take care of their needs in retirement. I am glad to hear that majority are still in football…either as coaches and assistant coaches. In the future, I hope you will be physicians or nutritionists. The ecosystem of football is very wide,” he said.
The president made these remarks on Friday during a breakfast meeting with various football legends at the Stadion Hotel, an event also attended by Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya.
