Kenya’s Gor Mahia have attributed their ban from new signings to substandard players and coaches, which some quarters loosely brand as plumbers.
Gor Mahia general secretary Sam Ocholla said this when assuring their fans that FIFA will lift the Kenyan Premier League team’s player transfer ban next January.
Ocholla said most of the coaches and players who dragged the club to FIFA were not good enough for the team.
“That said, we are also looking at a transfer policy and will have to dismantle the cartels who bring underperforming players to the club and quote a higher transfer fee for their own benefit. Most of the foreign players who took us to Fifa were not even part of the first team last season,” Ocholla told the club’s website.
The former Kenya league champions are not allowed to sign players for the next three years unless they sort out their former players and coach.
FIFA imposed the ban on the Kenyan team following complaints from the team’s former coach Steven Polack, winger Dickson Ambudo and Ugandan Shafiq Batamuze.
Gor Mahia also owes Ghanaian midfielder Steven Owusu, Congolese striker Sando Yangayay and Malian goalkeeper Adama Keita.
The coach and the players sought FIFA’s intervention over unpaid dues dating back to five years ago.
Ocholla said he hopes FIFA will lift the ban in January.
“I want to thank our fans for their continued support and to assure them that the transfer ban will be lifted soon,” Ochola told Citizen TV.
He said the lifting of the ban will pave the way for the club to sign new players.
“We have to be in the transfer market in 2023, and that means we first have to settle our former players. The club is working on that,” Ocholla added.
