Gor Mahia banned from Cecafa after taking their money problems abroad
Gor Mahia have been handed a two year suspension from competing at the Cecafa Kagame Cup.
This is after the team snubbed the tournament’s closing ceremony at the National Stadium here in Dar es Salaam on Friday night.
The Kenyan champions finished third in the regional football competition after beating Zanzibar’s Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi 2-0 in a one-sided match. New signing Francis Mustafa and Samuel Onyango scored the goals.
Tanzania’s Azam FC successfully defended their title after downing cross town rivals Simba 2-1.
RECEIVE MEDALS
As per the tournament’s rules, the top three teams, Simba, Azam and Gor Mahia were supposed to grace the podium to receive their winners medals and dummy cheques.
Gor Mahia’s case, they were due to walk away with $10,000 (Sh1 million).
The Kenyans however put up a no-show when the stadium announcer called them up, in the process snubbing senior officials including Tanzania’s sports minister Charles Mwakyembe, Cecafa president Muttasim Gaffar and the regional football body’s long serving secretary Nicholas Musonye.
“We were promised that we shall be given the money to share amongst ourselves and that’s why we saw no need to take the medals without the cash,” a K’Ogalo player who spoke off the record told Nairobi News.
This behaviour however left the tournament organisers fuming.
BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS
“We met Gor Mahia on Thursday and asked them to give us their bank account details, we waited in vain while Simba, Azam and even JKU gave us theirs because they knew they are in the money bracket. We were to release the money by Saturday noon to their respective bank accounts,” an Cecafa official explained.”
“Simba and Azam will have their money by today while Gor Mahia officials are yet to give us their bank detils. What do we do in such instance? But yet again, they’ve misbehaved during the tournament from turning down the hotel, to refusing to use the dressing room and now being a no-show on the podium, they must be ready to bear the consequences,” the official added.
Gor Mahia players, who had watched the final from the stands, left the stadium insisting to be paid their Sh1 million prize money in cash for second runners up.