National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) President Paul Tergat has urged Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) to be diplomatic as they negotiate their way around the ongoing technical support from International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) for the national women's volleyball team, Malkia Strikers for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Through FIVB Volleyball Empowerment Programme, Kenya received technical support in 2021 that saw the international volleyball governing body second six Brazilian coaches to take charge of Malkia Strikers' preparations for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The six coaches were head coach Luizomar de Moura, assistant coach Jefferson Arosti, strength and conditioning coach Marcelo De Souza, statistician Leonard Barbosa, physiotherapist Thiago Moreira, and team manager Beto Opice.
Led by Luizomar, the Brazilian coaches teamed up with local coaches Paul Bitok, Japheth Munala and Josp Barasa to prepare the team for the Tokyo Olympics. The Covid-19 pandemic scuttled FIVB's plan to have the team camp in Brazil for two months, therefore the national team held its preparations in Nairobi and Team Kenya's camp in Kurume.
The project resumed in 2022 when Kenya camped in Brazil for three months in preparation for the FIVB World Championship held in Netherlands. Luizomar guided Kenya to a 3-0 victory over Cameroon to reclaim top spot in Africa on the FIVB rankings.
That feat saw Malkia Strikers qualify for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup held in France. As part of the programme, Kenya camped in Morocco for a month but lost 3-1 to Colombia in the quarter-finals to bow out.
The team then proceeded to Yaounde, Cameroon for the African Nations Championship where they overcame Egypt 3-0 in the final to reclaim the continental title after eight years and cement top spot in Africa on the FIVB rankings. Winning the African title pushed Malkia Strikers further up the FIVB rankings and guaranteed them of qualification for the Paris Olympics.
Early this year, FIVB and KVF started talks to have the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) renewed ahead of the Paris Olympics preparations which would see the team camp in Finland for a month before playing international friendly matches in France ahead of the Summer Games.
However, KVF insisted that they wanted equal representation on the bench (three Kenyans, three Brazilians), pressing for the Team Manager position as well as two slots for assistant coaches as opposed to the one slot they had for Tokyo Olympics.
According to documents seen by Nation Sport, FIVB returned with a counter proposal that offered KVF two slots for local assistant coaches, preferably young and upcoming ones who could be groomed to take over the team in future.
In addition to the two assistant coaches slots, FIVB had also offered to support Kenya's logistics to the upcoming African Games by facilitating accommodation and travel of a full technical bench and 14 players.
Kenya National Sports Council had only given a provision of two officials and 12 players for the African Games due to limited funding from the government.
However, Nation Sport understands that the counter proposal by FIVB was unanimously turned down during a KVF National Executive Committee meeting held on Saturday which could now mean that Kenya risks losing out on the FIVB technical support and an opportunity to train in Europe in preparation for the Paris Olympics, a move Tergat has termed 'crazy'.
"We were lucky to have this programme and the presence of the Brazilians coaches is beneficial to the players. The late Waithaka Kioni through NOC-K pushed for this project to come to Kenya. FIVB would have chosen another African country to benefit from the project but they chose Kenya," began Tergat.
"I'm really disappointed and frustrated that we want to have this programmme go down the drain because of selfishness. I'm aware the players who are beneficiaries of this initiative want the continuity of this programme and I hope that the federation will have that in mind to reach a favourable Memorandum of Understanding with FIVB," added a visibly frustrated Tergat.
"But should we let go of this program, I'm sure the performance of Malkia Strikers, who are a brand in this country, will dwindle. I have a legacy to protect, the welfare of athletes are my main concern and it's sad that they stand to lose should the federation fail to approach the issue of Empowerment Programme diplomatically," he added.
Tergat was speaking on Sunday on the sidelines of the ongoing three-day media seminar at the Nokras Riverine Hotel and Spa, Sagana in Murang'a County.
KVF Secretary General Ismail Chege confirmed that their decision to drop out of the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment Programme was final.
"Our decision is final that we will work with the local coaches going forward. We had a meeting attended by eight National Executive Committee members on Saturday, and we unanimously agreed that we no longer need the services of the Brazilian coaches. That's the stand of the federation. We recently held a meeting with NOC-K and we shared our concerns about the Brazilians and therefore they are aware of the happenings," said Chege.
Former assistant coach, now KVF Deputy President Paul Bitok, was the only Kenyan on the bench when Malkia Strikers competed in the FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup (France), FIVB World Championship (Netherlands), African Nations Championship (Cameroon) and the delayed Tokyo Olympics.
Malkia Strikers are set to start local residential training on June 10 at a yet to be decided venue before they head to Miramas, France for international training camp ahead of July 26 to August 11 Olympic Games.
It remains to be seen whether this stand-off will sour the relationship between KVF and FIVB given that the international body was already warming up to the idea to incorporate the men's national team, Wafalme Stars, in the Volleyball Empowerment Programme.
