Mayoyo slams FKF for sidelining teachers in junior national team setups

St. Anthony's Boys Kitale football team's head coach Peter Mayoyo wants the Kenya Football Federation to hand over the junior teams to the ministry of education and Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association to handle them for good results.

This comes in the wake of Junior Stars elimination from the 2026 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers where they were humiliated 3-0 by hosts Ethiopia on Tuesday at Abebe Bikila Stadium.

“We have poor structures in place which cannot help in talent development and that is a big disservice to our young players. If there are no proper structures, no collaboration with school sports associations then we shouldn’t expect miracles,” Mayoyo told Citizen Digital.

The celebrated coach has slammed the federation for sidelining teachers and throwing elite Premier League coaches in the deep-end by giving them 'children' they have little knowledge about.

“My call to FKF has always been to entrust the junior teams in the hands of teachers. These teachers have been with these young players for a while, they know them well and they can produce good results if entrusted.”

Mayoyo, normally referred to by the name “The big machine” asked the federation to copy what other federations like Athletics Kenya and Kenya Volleyball Federation are doing.

“We have a pool of talent and we don’t take advantage of the talents we have. We will end up being labeled as a non-footballing nation yet we have talents.”

Former AFC Leopards and Harambee Stars midfield maestro Charles Okwemba has echoed Mayoyo’s sentiments asking the federation to involve these teachers in the national team.

“There should be a collaboration between teachers and top level coaches because these teachers understand these young tucks well. The teachers contribute a lot in the development of these players and they need to be involved,” Okwemba said.

Okwemba has also blamed the federation for embracing shortcuts instead of investing in football development.

“We love shortcuts and that will not take us anywhere. We should invest and put proper structures in place for talent development. You can’t expect miracles in terms of results when you task coaches to assemble a winning team in one or two weeks. It’s impossible,” Okwemba added.

This was the second year running where Kenya missed out qualifying for AFCON after being bungeled out in the group stages last year in Tanzania. 

William Muluya and Peter Okidi of Shabana were in charge of the team in the Cecafa tournament.