It is two days since Gor Mahia, the husband of teams, was humiliated at Kasarani by Moroccan side Berkane.
We are now getting behind the scenes details on what really happened on days leading the crunch tie, the biggest match in Gor’s recent history.
According to a local media house, coach Hassan Oktay was forced to take a breakfast of chapati and porridge, bought from a street food vendor on Saturday, just a day to the match.
The coach arrived at Camp Toyoyo on Saturday morning only to find his assistant coach with no players on sight.
“I got to the pitch and realised that there were no players to train. There was a strike. I was so disheartened when my assistants told me that the players would not be coming. And indeed none of them showed up.” Oktay told a local daily.
In fact only two players; Erisa Sekisambu and Francis Mustafa were at
the Sports View Hotel on Saturday night for the residential stay on Saturday night.
Things did not change on Sunday morning as only few players showed up at the hotel with Denis Oliech being forced to plead with his teammates to show up.
Defender Philemon Otieno, was spotted by fans at Fedha Estate in Embakasi at 12 noon, trying to catch a motorbike to Kasarani.
The players have condemned their ill-treatment especially in the CAF matches, where they say they don’t see the need to play without any monetary value.
Apart from the non-payment of allowances and winning bonuses, the players feel
“Twice this year we have slept at airports while on transit to North Africa. Once we were in Dubai for about nine hours and the officials present did not even give us any pocket money nor did they organise for us to have any meals.
“Most of the team members see no reason of going any further in this Confed Cup when they will not feel the benefits in their pockets. Most of them are looking outside and they feel they have marketed themselves enough,” the same player said.