qualifying match against Nigeria.
The Coach of the Kenyan national team noted that new rules were introduced into the game different from the FIFA regulations he had always known.
“My team played the last 10 minutes without me; it is tough for any team playing like that. I was asked to leave at the time they needed me most. My absence caused us a lot.
“I am not saying that if I was not ejected we would have won the game. No I don’t like to argue with the “if” word in football. In football anything can happen. But what I am sure of is that they destabilised my plans. They left my team without the coordinating I was doing. But of course I was not surprised. So many things happen with African rules.
“Before the game started, the same official on the side came to give rules of the game that I never knew from anywhere. During the game, he came to warn me on how to give my players water, insisting they should be the ones coming out for it. Then they finished it up with sending me off.”
The Belgian said that it was the first time he had witnessed a sending off without a previous warning.
“I was asking for explanation because I was not issued any card. But instead I was just sent away in a strange way. I was talking to my players and didn’t infringe on any other person’s territory. Or is there any rule that says a coach cannot stand at the lines and talk to his players all through the game? It was a funny decision.”
Kenya took the lead in the first half from a Francis Kahata free-kick which the Super Eagles goalkeeper regarded as one of the best he has ever seen. All hopes seemed lost until the final minutes when substitute Nnamdi Odumadi who plays for Italian Serie B side Varese scored three minutes from stoppage time to maintain Eagles history of never losing at the UJ Esuene stadium, and earn Nigeria a hard-fought draw.
