Harambee Stars face tough test against giants Senegal in friendly

Harambee Stars and Kenya Police FC midfielder Marvin Nabwire expressed confidence that he and his teammates “will be up for it” when they take on 2021 Africa Cup of Nations winners Senegal in a friendly match today from 6pm at the Mardan Sports Complex in Antalya, southern Turkey.

“Senegal has many professional footballers. Some of them are our idols but we are in an upbeat mood,” Nabwire said on Monday from Antalya.

Harambee Stars will be returning to the Mardan Sports Complex, where they drew 2-2 with Russia on October 16, 2023. It was the first time Kenya was playing a match in Turkey, and the team was coached by Engin Firat from Turkey.

On Friday, Harambee Stars, under South African coach Benni McCarthy, lost 1-0 to Equatorial Guinea at the Emir Sports Complex, also in Antalya.

Nabwire rued the result, stating: “We did not utilise our chances. We want to rectify that against Senegal.”

The match will be the first friendly encounter between the nations. All their four previous meetings between the two teams took place in Afcon. Senegal beat Kenya 3-0 in 1992, 2004, and 2019 editions of Afcon. Their first meeting, at 1990 Afcon, ended 0-0.

Nabwire’s teammate, Duke Abuya, labelled the historic meeting “a game crucial to the future growth of the national team.”

“We will be the underdogs, but playing Senegal motivates us to compete at the highest level,” Abuya, who plays for Tanzanian giants Yanga, added.

Jacob “Ghost” Mulee, who coached Harambee Stars at the 2004 Afcon, recalled his players being star-struck when they met Senegalese players back then.

“They experienced stage fright,” he told Nation Sport.

“I expect Harambee Stars to be more confident now. This is a good match for helping McCarthy prepare the team for 2027 Afcon,” Mulee added.

The match takes place in a city regarded as Turkey’s “capital of tourism” with its yacht-lined harbours, beachside resorts, and historical sites dating back to the Roman Empire.

Those defining characteristics of Antalya, located by the Mediterranean Sea, have made it attractive to Turkish and European clubs seeking warm-weather training locations. Most resorts in Antalya have up to 10 FIFA-approved pitches on their properties that can be used for training and hosting of international matches.

Athanas Oballa, the Head of National Teams and Projects at the Football Kenya Federation (FKF), told Nation Sport that Harambee Stars’ match against Equatorial Guinea was played at a pitch owned by the holding company, Emir Hotels, which operates The Sense De Luxe Hotel, where the national team is staying.

“Top European clubs and the Turkish national football team occasionally camp here. Everything here is top-level. The hotel is a five-minute drive from the stadium we played in and 300 metres from the beach, where we have been unwinding with walks,” Oballa said.

“They have fitness and medical centres and a fleet of buses that teams camping in the resort hire. Some Kenyans joked that we played Equatorial Guinea at a Turkish Karura Forest, but that is not the case. The ground is FIFA-approved and hosts international matches. It has a stand accommodating 700 spectators,” he added.

Oballa also said that Harambee Stars’ brief tour of Turkey has provided networking opportunities for FKF officials, stating: “There are so many teams here and we have interacted with some of them. The Turkish national team was here recently.”

Echoing Oballa’s earlier comments, Gor Mahia’s Ghanaian coach Charles Akonnor described Antalya as “a holiday place” with “good weather and top-notch football facilities.”

Akonnor was Ghana’s coach when the Black Stars lost 3-0 to Mali in a friendly match that was played at the Emir Sport Complex in October 2020.

The match was one of the first friendly matches between African teams to be played in Antalya. Since then, over 20 African countries have played friendly matches there.

International match organising companies licensed by Fifa arranged those friendly matches, hence positioning Antalya as a hub for the nexus of the commercial and sporting interests of African national football teams.

Harambee Stars’ friendly matches against Equatorial Guinea were arranged by McSport, a Fifa-licensed international match organising company founded by Moroccan Youssef Haijoub in 2014.

In the last five years, the company has organised tens of friendly matches between African teams, most of which were played in Morocco or Antalya. In 2024, Harambee Starlets featured in the six-team Pink Ladies Cup tournament that McSport organised in Antalya.

McSport, Oballa revealed, also organised Harambee Stars’ two friendly matches against Chad, which were played in June in Morocco. According to Oballa, FKF and McSport share costs related to organising Harambee Stars’ friendly matches.

“We pay for our international travel and some accommodation costs. McSport funds our local travel and pays part of our hotel bills. Match organisers prefer working with national teams that can carry their own weight,” Oballa said.

“McSport finds opponents for us. They also pay referees, hire the pitch, and provide medical and security services. They recoup their expenses through monetising broadcast rights and on-pitch advertising,” Oballa said.

Harambee Stars' match against Equatorial Guinea was streamed live on YouTube by FanZone TV, a media and marketing company linked to McSport. Also, the match featured pitch-side branding by Emir Hotels.

Speaking about the role of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) in the organisation of Harambee Stars’ two friendly matches in their territory, Oballa said their role was “clerical”. “They only sanctioned the match and facilitated procurement of their referees,” Oballa said.

While Oballa did not want to disclose the actual hosts involved in organising the friendly matches, he did state that the friendly matches against Equatorial Guinea and Senegal do not provide financial gain for FKF.

“If anything, we spend more, but it is worth it because securing matches against tough opponents on our own is not easy. Match organisers fill that gap and make it easy for us to get matches that give us more experience and exposure,” he said. “We hope to play more big teams next year. We have some invites on the table,” Oballa added without disclosing the teams.

Friendly matches played in Antalya are not just big business for match organisers but also for Turkish football referees. In 2024, some Turkish referees were up in arms when some European teams playing friendly matches in Antalya hired foreign referees to officiate the games.

Events in Turkey in recent weeks have exposed the rot in Turkish football after its federation suspended hundreds of referees and footballers for betting on football matches. The scandal cast doubts on the integrity of Turkish referees, and with that incident hanging over Harambee Stars’ friendly matches against Equatorial Guinea and Senegal, Oballa hopes appointed match officials will be up to the task when they play the Lions of Teranga.

“On Friday, the referee (a Turk) gave our opponents a dubious penalty and disallowed a goal we scored for an alleged offside,” he lamented.

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