Football Kenya Federation, through the chief executive officer Barry Otieno, have downplayed concerns by Migori Youth on Fixture congestion for the National Super League Club.Replying to a press statement by the club outlining their congestion woes, Otieno said that the congestion has not been brought about by the Federation but by the situation presented by covid-19 pandemic.The CEO went ahead to note that all teams and not only Migori Youth have been affected by the congestion and the situation has been explained to the Migori-based club several times.@FKF_NSL resultsWednesday1. @VihigaClub 3-0 @FcTalanta – Bukhungu2. @GusiiFC 3-1 @SoyUnited – Awendo Stadium3. @Silibwet_Leons 1-0 @MurangaSeal- Bomet Stadium4. @MigoriYouth 1-1 @KisumuAllstars – Migori Stadium— Daily Sport (@DailySport5) August 11, 2021 With the other clubs having fixtures of their own, Barry added that though they would have wished to reschedule the fixture, they would be tampering with the other clubs’ schedules as there is no free day to reschedule the fixture.”Fixture congestion has not been occasioned by the Federation but by Covid and frequent lockdowns by the government to try and contain the covid situation or the spread of covid in the country. We are operating in a very unique situation that is challenging not only to Migori because if you go through the fixture you will realize that it’s not only Migori but other teams at well and it comes at a time when we need to finish this season so that we may be able to kick off next season in time. This has been explained to Migori on several occasions and I think the issue is not the fixture per se but there are other underlying issues around the club that they are not saying. We could have wished to move these matches but there is no free day to reschedule these matches. If you reschedule this match, ideally, the rescheduling affects other clubs which also have got fixtures. So there is no free day to reschedule and we have explained this to Migori,” Barry explainedMigori Youth, through their Chairman Abdi Aziz Osman, wrote to the Federation seeking to have the game against Fortune Sacco that is set to be played on Saturday, 14 August 2021 postponed but were yet to receive a reply at the time of their press statement.”We engaged the Federation on 9th August 2021 on the possibility of being flexible on the match no 34, a fixture against Fortune Sacco to be postponed to a later date but our plea to have the same postponed to a later date has not been considered, neither explanation given,” part of the statement read.Migori youth we are happy with how the Nsl league is being run @Citizentvkenya @TrevorOmbiji #JKLive— Migori Youth FC (@MigoriYouth) July 28, 2021 In their statement, Migori Youth are pleading with the Federation to have the welfare of the players at heart, as well as fairness and integrity in the league and not just rushing to see the league to the end.The team has already played three of the 11, against AP Bomet, Vihiga Bullets, and Kisumu All Stars. They are however yet to play Fortune Sacco, Silibwet, Coast Stima, Gusii United, Murang’a Seal, Kibera All Stars, Mwatate United, and Kenya Police between now and 5 September 2021.”The club wishes to relay our dissatisfaction with the FKF League and Competitions office over modified fixtures of the National Super League where the majority of teams from Western and Nyanza have been scheduled to honour 11 fixtures in the month of August 2021 without prior consultation with the affected clubs, and not taking into consideration the general welfare of the players.Migori Youth Football Club is the only most affected club with the modified fixtures after the ban of Sporting activities was lifted in the Lake Region since other clubs had honoured some of their home fixtures in their respective neighbouring counties that were not affected by the ban of the sporting activities.We request the Federation to not only rush for league completion without looking into the welfare of the players, fairness and integrity of the league,” the statement continued.
