Tusker coach Robert Matano says lack of a comprehensive youth program is to blame for the low standards of the local league.He regretted that successive Football Kenya Federation (FKF) offices have failed to invest in this area leaving local clubs with no choice but to use available talent which he admitted is not good enough.“Apart from the lack of a good sponsorship for the league, the other problem we have is that FKF has not invested in youth programs where talent is developed.“Given the situation, I think clubs are doing their best with the available talent,” he said.Matano also challenged Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat to talk to local coaches and find a solution to the low standards.Firat questions FKFPL’s potential, urges players to pursue top leagues abroad“He needs to sit with Kenyan coaches in a symposium for two days. The standards can be low but this is due to several factors. Some teams are not paying their players and still expect them to go for training.“The other factor is that is the age at which most of our players start to play football,” he said.Matano praised efforts by the government to invest in youth programs pointing out that the fruits will start to be seen soon.##NAJAVA_MECA_7930343##Elsewhere, Bandari vice-chairman Twaha Mbarak has differed with national coach Firat over his suggestion for local players to quit playing in the local league.He said instead efforts should be made to improve the standards of the local league to make it more attractive.“We need to make efforts to improve the league instead of asking players to leave to other leagues. Our league standards may be low at this time but we are going to improve and get better.“One of the things we need to do is to allow clubs to run the league just as it used to be with the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) when we were able to attract a lot of sponsors,” he said.
