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EYE ON THE MEDIA: GOR MAHIA'S CORONATION


Real champs
"Bandari are surely the real league champs" writes Philip Onyango in the Daily Nation on Monday 27th May,2019, "I want to boast here that Bandari, who on Sunday sealed the second place in the log, are my 2018/2019 SportPesa Premier League champions". What is Philip's major contention? Well, they (Bandari) traveled the furthest to honour their league fixtures. He writes, "Bandari, at the furthest end of the country, had to travel over 1,000 kilometres week in week out for the congested fixtures which apart from claiming several players through injury as was the case just before the mid-season, also left the playing unit and technical bench fatigued. So, you see Philip thinks that the team that travels the longest distance to honour their fixtures should be the one that wins the title. Nowhere else in the world (Not even in Guatemala ) do we have such a system. But this is not even his major contention. He seems to agree with The Standard's Gilbert Wandera who also explored this topic in an article titled "Was Gor Mahia favoured in Title Chase?"
But it was Bernard Mwalala who sparked this controversy. The little known Bandari FC manager who is yet to win a major trophy in his managerial career but has been named in some quarters as Africa's next managerial star, is yet to learn how to concede defeat. He claims that Gor Mahai were helped in their title push by the fact that they were not required to honour their fixtures at some (substandard) venues like the Green Stadium in Awendo, Chemelil Sports Complex and the Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega. Mwalala contents that had Gor Mahia played at these (garden-like) grounds they could have dropped some points and maybe - just maybe - his Bandari side could have emerged champions. A lot of 'if's and maybe's, but no hard facts. The fact of the matter, however, is that Gor Mahia played at these grounds in 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons and still emerged champions.
Poor Coronation
"Gor Mahia officials have absolved themselves from blame regarding the lacklustre 2018-2019 SportPesa Premier League trophy presentation ceremony on Saturday at Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos" Celestine Olilo wrote for The Daily Nation on 27th May. "Football Kenya Federation officials led by president Nick Mwendwa snubbed the event, with sources indicating that they had not been invited," She writes. Well, from who exactly did Nick Mwendwa want an invitation? From Gor Mahia? This was not a Gor Mahia event. It's not up to the champions to present themselves with the trophy! "Wasteful Gor Mahia coronation day spoilt by Posta Rangers." is the title to an article by Fred Maingi on www.kurunzi.co.ke but he writes nothing about how wasteful Gor Mahia were and nothing about how spoilt the coronation was. Instead he writes, "Posta’s chance to wrap up the game was wasted by Felix Ochieng who blasted over the bar with a yawning net beckoning." and then, "Felix Oluoch also got a chance to hand Rangers the lead late on but he had a poor touch that....". Wait, who were wasteful, again? I thought the title indicated it was Gor Mahia... Maingi then goes on makes another howler, "Following the draw, Gor are now on 32 points, [and] need at least a point in the final match to ensure they won’t be among the bottom two." What??


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