Kenya in mad dash to get stadia ready for CHAN, and Selebwa believes timelines can be met

Kenya can still co-host the delayed CHAN 2024 together with Tanzania and Uganda should the government move with speed in renovating Nyayo and Kasarani stadiums,  Luanda Villa head coach Gilbert Selebwa has said.

The former Leopards tactician has however warned that things could still go south if the multi-agency team appointed last week by Sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen to oversee the CHAN and AFCON 2027 preparations won’t get maximum backing from the government.

“Now we have another opportunity but we have been given only about a month to show that we are ready to host this tournament ahead of us (CHAN 2024).

The only people who can help see to it that these stadiums and the required infrastructure are in the right shape for use is the government and nobody else,” Selebwa explained.

“The government is the one to provide for funds and not the FKF. So this means should we fail to host this tournament for the second time, it will be very painful and very unfortunate,”Selebwa added.

The CHAN 2024 tournament is pencilled to run from February 1 -28, 2025.

The 22-man steering committee will be led by veteran football administrator Nicholas Musonye as the Chairman with the new FKF president Hussein Mohammed as the Vice-chairman.

Kenya has until December 31 to ensure the two major stadiums are ready or risk losing the hosting rights.

“But now that they have people on the ground (the multi-agency team under Nicholas Musonye) because I saw the CS Murkomen has gazetted the names of serious football personnel including the former CECAFA secretary general Musonye as one of the pioneers to ensure that these particular infrastructure is up to the standards required.

So I believe that Musonye’s group has got a timeline and must move with a lot of speed or otherwise the timeline is very short and it will be very sad for us to lose the right to host CHAN,” Selebwa concluded.