Mathare United have made good of their threat not to honour their league match against Bandari at the Kasarani Annex with the Dockers getting a walkover in the game.The bottom-placed Slum Boys were set to host the Dockers at Kasarani on Sunday afternoon but on Saturday morning, club founder and chairman Bob Munro issued a statement announcing that the club will not be in a position to honour the match owing to financial challenges that have crippled the team for the last two seasons.1️⃣1️⃣ KIKOSIMkufunzi Anthony “Modo” Kimani amewateua wachezaji wafuatao kwa ajili shughuli ya leo.💙⚓#BandariNiYetu pic.twitter.com/SvHzLq8NqR— Bandari Football Club (@BandariOfficial) April 24, 2022 The team narrowly avoided relegation from the top tier last season largely due to financial challenges. However, the arrival of coach Frank Ouna coincided with the change of fortunes as they survived the drop by a whisker. This season, however, things are thicker and a drop from the top tier seems inevitable.“Today is a sad day in the 35-year history of the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and Mathare United FC (MUFC). lt’s an especially sad and even painful day for me and the MUFC staff, coaches, players and their families as well as for the tens of thousands of youth in the Mathare and neighbouring slums who dream of helping themselves and their families escape poverty by someday playing for Mathare United,” read the statement issued by Munro in part.“Today, sadly, our team is financially unable to host and honour a match for the first time since we started playing in the FKF leagues 28 years ago. Coincidentally, today we’re scheduled to play Bandari whose Head Coach, Anthony Kimani, is a MYSA/MUFC legend who captained our 2008 Kenyan Premier League Championship team, whose Goalkeeper Coach, Wilson Oburu, is a former MYSA/MUFC goalkeeper, and whose lineup includes previous MYSA/MUFC stars such as defender Andrew Juma, midfielders Whyvonne lsuza and Kevin Kimani plus striker Chris Ochieng,”.
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On Sunday, Bandari showed up at the Kasarani Annex for the game according to the laws of the game but their supposed hosts were nowhere to be seen and in the end, the match officials had to issue a walkover to open another sad chapter in the fast dwindling state of football in the country. The visitors pick the points in a 2-0 win.Mathare’s last game was against Vihiga Bullets in Kakamega a match they lost 2-0. The team has not trained since leaving Bukhungu and the decision not to honour the game did not come as a shocker to those close to the team.
