FC Talanta will only take on Gor Mahia in the rescheduled Football Kenya Federation Premier League match if the Transition Committee reimburses the team the Ksh 421,000 incurred from last weekend’s trip to Kakamega.The league debutants were supposed to host Gor at Bukhungu Stadium but the duel was postponed under unclear circumstances barely a day to the match and at a time when Talanta had flown to Kakamega via Kisumu.K’ogalo laid bare their intentions of skipping the match set for Saturday a day earlier and made good their threat by failing to show up at Bukhungu.Gor Mahia have their way as Transition Committee postpone game against TalantaGor, in a latter addressed to the Transition Committee on Friday, cited power vacuum in the running of the game occasioned by the expiry of the Caretaker Committee’s mandate and the decision by Talanta to host the match outside the nominated home grounds as the reasons behind their decision to give the match a wide berth.The league newbies usually play their home matches at Ruaraka grounds, Kasarani and Thika Stadium.Talanta Secretary General Douglas Ratemo revealed that the club had to turn to Bukhungu owing to the unavailability of their home grounds in Nairobi that had been booked and had also put into consideration that Gor had been barred from using either Nyayo and Kasarani Stadiums.The administrator alleged that they had communicated their intentions to stage the game in Kakamega to both the league managers and Gor three weeks earlier and the last-minute cancellation of the game without notice to the host team was against the principles of fair play.Ratemo disclosed that Talanta learnt of the move by the Transition Committee that was barely hours new in office to postpone the game from a letter doing rounds online purportedly addressed to Gor chairman Ambrose Rachier.Yet another walkover looms in the FKFPL – Gor will not honour match against TalantaAdditionally, he claims that the officials who had been appointed by the Transition Committee’s predecessors were ready to man the game but apparently, a text message from an unidentified member of the former confirmed.He says the club is ready to host Gor on a condition that the expenses incurred in meeting logistical costs from last weekend’s trip to Kakamega are met and further, they are given a fair hearing from the complaint filed with the Leagues and Competitions Committee.“It is unfortunate that we had to learn that the game had been rescheduled from the referees and online. They did a letter to Gor chairman and failed to copy us yet we were the host. The decision to play in Kakamega was communicated three weeks in advance after our efforts to get a stadium in Nairobi bored no fruits. We do not have a problem in playing the game but all we ask for is fair hearing and reimbursement of the money spent last weekend,” he lamented.”We used money to fly the team to Kisumu, in hiring the grounds, security and ambulance services. It is only fair that we recoup the amount then we can think of playing Gor. Had the game been postponed on reasonable grounds and prior communication done to both teams, then we wouldn’t have a problem in hosting them again,” he added.Our efforts to get a response from the Transition Committee were futile.
