Kenya national team head coach Benni McCarthy has thrown his weight behind his players with the ongoing protests.
The Harambee Stars boycotted training on the eve of the 2027 Africa Cup Nations qualifier against Eritrea over lack of payments and treatment by their Football Association. The players had a meeting after their arrival in camp this week and decided not to train until their grievances have been addressed.
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Kenya are in Group D of the qualifiers with Eritrea, Guinea and South Africa and by virtue of being one of the co-hosts of the PAMOJA tournament, they have atomically qualified for the event.
McCarthy spoke to Sporty TV where he described how disappointing the situation is considering he has endured it as a player.
He also revealed that technical team is also owed money by the federation and while they may prioritise football, they understand where the players are feeling deceived.
“I thought Africa has surpassed all this in my lifetime, because I used to go through the same episode when I was a player once in a blue moon with Bafana in the national team,” said McCarthy.
“And this used to be quite frequent happening. And you think 15 years later things would have now moved on, and you know everything is nice and smooth but no, unfortunately not. But it has been building because I think a lot of the players have been loyal towards me. They’re respectful, so they always ask for my opinion, and I always just tell them football always first, football above everything.
“But when you’ve reached your limit, because I think when you come to camp, not that you play for the finance. But if you sacrifice, and obviously Kenyan players don’t have the luxury of what the Senegalese national team players have, or the Ivoirians, or the Cameroonians or the Moroccans. The majority of them still play in the local leagues, and the ones that are abroad, they are not playing for the biggest teams. So of course, financially, they are not as well off as most of the teams.
“So, for them, every time when you are called up to the national team, that little bit of money that you get for allowances or for winning bonuses that contributes a lot to their life. So, when you do make that sacrifice and you come and it’s like one camp, two camps, three camps, and you’re not getting your money, then you get to a point where you’re like, no, now I’m not coming to play for the national team.
“We sacrifice and what if I get injured and then I have to face responsibility for myself? So, I kind of understood that, and the players just decided that was enough because the federation was constantly making a lot of empty promises. And even deceiving the players that the money has been sent and should be in their accounts this end of the week, and then the week goes past, another week and the third week and then still no money and some oh we have the wrong details. So, I think it’s just the fact that they are deceived. Like a lot of the players felt that they are being deceived or being told one thing, and then it’s a complete opposite.
“So, the players just ended up having a meeting, and then spoke up with us, and we said like we are completely behind them, whatever they want to do. We did not because we are in the same boat as well. We also haven’t received a couple of months’ salaries and also match bonus. So then for us, yeah, football is football, but for the players, it’s a completely different story.
“So, they decided, we’ve decided as a team that we want the federation or the Ministry of Sports, whichever leaders that we can find that can listen and try and sort the situation out before the players go out there and lay their bodies on the line for the country. So yeah, that’s where we at now.”