Mwendwa: AFC Leopards’ Trucha qualified to coach in FKF Premier League

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has confirmed AFC Leopards are safe as their new coach Tomas Trucha is qualified to coach in the FKF Premier League.

The statement comes just hours after president Nick Mwendwa revealed Gor Mahia coach Roberto Oliveira Goncalves does not qualify to coach in the Kenyan top-flight.

Mwendwa has now told Goal unlike their rivals Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards hired a qualified coach who has a Uefa Pro license and will thus work in Kenya.

“For AFC Leopards, we don’t have any problem with them, their new coach Tomas [Trucha] is qualified to coach in the FKF Premier League,” Mwendwa told Goal on Saturday. “He has the required Uefa Pro license, a good certificate in the world, and he will be eligible to handle the team in the league.”

After Caf banned the Gor Mahia coach from sitting on the touchline during the Caf Champions League preliminary round match against Armee Patriotique Rwandaise FC (APR) of Rwanda on November 28 in Kigali, Mwendwa has also stated he his qualified to coach in the FKF Premier League.

“After employing the coach, the law states that the clubs must submit their papers and documents to FKF and that must be accompanied by payment of KSh100 000,” Mwendwa told Radio Jambo on Saturday.

“They know all these because through club licensing process that is made very clear.

“Gor Mahia presented the coach’s papers and we then sent them to Caf and we have seen their reaction. Caf is very clear that even if the papers are put through the equalisation process, they do not meet the standards.

“That means he will not be on the bench for all Gor Mahia matches including the Champions League and the Premier League.

“He can only coach at the training ground or do some consultancy away from the touchline but he will never be allowed to be on the touchline during games.”

In an earlier interview, former Gor Mahia CEO Omondi Aduda blamed club officials for the problems facing Oliveira, accusing them of negligence and not being abreast with changes in the world of football.

“Someone at Gor Mahia slept on the job,” Aduda told Goal when asked why Caf had reacted that way.

“Caf did not question his [Oliveira] qualifications, do you know that none of the foreign coaches have a Caf A license, and what usually happens is that the licenses they hold must be equalized in tandem with the Caf licensing criteria?

“Caf doesn’t have problems with his [Oliveira] certificates, that is not right, even those other foreign coaches that we have had, what you do is you send their papers for equalization so that those certifications they get from their countries are equalized at every given level.

“There is no way particularly when the team is engaged in Caf, you must be abreast with each and every regulation which Caf always give out periodically, then you cannot get into this kind of messes, because it is not the first time we are hiring a foreign coach.

“He was in Rwanda [coaching Rayon Sports], and he coached the team without trouble, even against us [in Caf competition], and he even reached the quarter-finals with the team, he has also coached in Tunisia with the same papers, if there were changes this time around, it was the honour of the club to ensure that we keep abreast with those changes and act on them.”

Caf has already outlined a possible ban that Gor Mahia are likely to face should they fail to abide by the orders.