Nairobi, Kenya: AFC Leopards may face disciplinary action over the violence that erupted on Sunday during their derby against archrivals Gor Mahia at Nyayo Stadium.
This is after a match report prepared by centre referee Davies Omweno blamed their fans for the violence.
Kenyan Premier League (KPL) Chief Executive Officer, Jack Oguda, said the report points that the violence broke out after Gor scored the winning goal in the 74th minute.
“The report by Omweno points out that all was calm until the goal was scored and this means Leopards’ fans were responsible for the violence.
“We, however, do not want to jump to conclusion because we have to look at all aspects of the incident and considering that the fans were taunting each other early in the match.
“The KPL board will meet today to deliberate on the referee’s report and make a decision on whether the matter should go to the disciplinary committee,” said Oguda.
Leopards have a pending matter with the disciplinary committee following their abandoned Top 8 match against Chemelil Sugar three weeks ago.
The disciplinary committee meets tomorrow to issue disciplinary measures against Leopards. The committee is chaired by Professor Magae Akech.
However, Leopards vice chairman, Walter Onyino, disagreed with the report and pointed out that the violence was spontaneous and had built up early in the match.
“By the sixth minute there was already tension in the terraces and the two groups of fans kept taunting each other from time to time. To say that we are responsible for the violence because of rthe goal is not true.
“Furthermore, the referee was not in a position to say what caused the violence which happened in the terraces. He was focused on the match and there is no way he would have been able to say what exactly happened,” said Onyino.
He insisted that as the home team they did everything possible to ensure that there was enough security on the day of the match.
“We asked for 100 policemen and had more than 100 stewards. Unfortunately, not all the policemen turned up and that is not our fault.
“At one point, we asked the policemen inside the stadium to prevent the two fans from meeting each other by creating a buffer zone between them, but they rejected our idea insisting this was their specialty.
“In this regard, there was nothing we could do because we are not security experts,” added Onyino.
The Sports Stadia Management Board (SSMB) Public Relations Officer, Rakhi Asman, agreed with Leopards and insisted that the policemen did a poor job.
“So far we have not seen any damage but the stadium is still assessing if there is anything that will need to be paid for.
“However, we believe Leopards did everything right but were let down by the policemen who preferred to watch the match instead of doing their job,” he said.
On Sunday, the derby was stopped for 10 minutes after police fired tear gas to disperse fighting fans.
The match ended 1-0 in Gor’s favour.
Observers are keen to know the fate of the match because they don’t want to issue to be swept under the carpet. Seven fans died in another Gor Mahia – AFC Leopards derby two years ago.
By Gilbert Wandera, The Standard
