Harambee Stars players celebrate scoring against Namibia in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 10, 2024.
Kenya’s Harambee Stars will on Tuesday conclude their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) Group “J” qualifiers when they host Namibia at the 46,000-seater capacity Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo province, South Africa.
Kenyan football fans will be hoping that Harambee Stars secured a ticket to the 2025 Afcon in Morocco – a qualification campaign which is likely to be their most expensive.
Reason? For the first time in Kenyan football history, Harambee Stars have played all their qualification matches away from home
Harambee Stars have been forced to host their home matches away since Kenya lacks a stadium that meets Fifa and CAF standards.
Kenya hosted Zimbabwe and Cameroon at Mandela International Stadium in Kampala, Uganda on September 6 and October 14 respectively.
Their last home match against Namibia will be played at Peter Mokaba Stadium, some 2,615km by plane from Nairobi, on Tuesday.
Harambee Stars’ coach Engin Firat said challenges in travel logistics to Polokwane was what influenced their decision to host Namibia at Peter Mokaba Stadium and not at Mandela National Stadium as they had originally planned.
Yesterday, FKF interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Korir told Nation Sport that Kenya spent about Sh21 million to prepare and play an away home fixture.
This means that by the time the team returns to Nairobi after their reverse fixture against Namibia, the federation will have spent well over Sh100m.
Had Harambee Stars hosted their three home fixtures of the qualifiers in Kenya, these costs would have been significantly lower.
Korir explained that the amount includes air tickets, accommodation, cost of hiring stadiums and players’ allowances. The Kenyan contingent typically consists of 35 persons including the players and members of the technical bench.
On average, the cheapest Kenya Airways economy class return ticket Nairobi-Entebbe bought today would cost about $478 (Sh61,781) according to esky.co.ke.
Meaning, FKF spent at least Sh4.3 million in air tickets for their two home matches in Kampala.
Meanwhile, a return ticket from Nairobi to Johannesburg bought today on Ethiopian Airline, according to the same site, would cost $581 (Sh 75,094) per person. That comes to about Sh2.6m for one contingent travelling.
However, Kenya did travel to Cameroon in a chartered flight which could have cost more.
Each Harambee Stars player received a foreign allowance of Sh105,000 for the 11 days that they spent on duty for matches against Zimbabwe and Namibia. The other significant expenses for the team have been the cost of accommodation and hiring training and match venues.
Korir stated the team is always accommodated in either a four-star or five-star hotel. To play a single match in a stadium in another country, teams part with about $6,000 (Sh700, 000).
FKF have recouped little in gate collections in their home matches with attendance figures miserably low.
Against Zimbabwe in Kampala, only a handful of fans attended the match, leaving Firat infuriated.
Regular and VIP tickets for the match retailed at USh15, 000 (about Sh517) and USh50,000 (about Sh1,725) respectively.
Kenya played their home against Cameroon at a closed Mandela stadium. Harambee Stars could only manager one point from their two home matches.
By the time Harambee Stars lads return to Kenya later next week they have, cumulatively, logged in 17,930km in air travel this campaign.
