 Welcome back to the touchline here on Y254. It is that time when we do our serious interview for the show and this time round we are here to talk to renowned football administrator Athanas Obango, popularly known as Obango here on the touchline to tell us why he wants to be the National Executive Council NEC member for Nairobi in the upcoming football Kenya elections. Welcome to the touchline on Y254. I think it's been a long time since you were here. Yeah, I think maybe some two years ago. Probably it could be two years ago. Where have you been, Obango? How is life outside there? Life is not bad. We are in grassroot football ever. Every weekend football, football. It's only that COVID has taken toll on us in terms of movement, but we are around. I know Zoro Robert wants to grill you on what has FKF candidature, but before he does, the last few years we met, I think it was during Kangemi United training. It's a team that you had committed yourself funding and even trying to facilitate the operations, but as you speak right now it's defunct. What happened? I think I'm one of the, in fact, I'm the founder member of Kangemi Allstars together with the current chairman. I think from the time I left in 2015 when I was suspended by the team, I really faced several challenges. Financial, leadership challenges, player exodus. So it's a team that has really gone through a lot. But that happens, normally happens, given that I've been a resident of Kangemi for a very, very long time. We've had a team that went after the primary Kangemi United. And the same problems that faced Kangemi United are the same problems that faced Kangemi Allstars in terms of not having people who have visionary, the professional aspect of managing football is a problem. So that's how the team has been going through a lot. But I decided to stay away from the team just to avoid a lot of politics. As much as everybody, every day I go to Kangemi, I'm told you have to come back, you have to come back. Coach, when I saw online people came out, when you said that you have declared your interest to fire for the Football Kenya Federation NEC member, and on your timeline, many people are commenting on your timeline. And one of the things I picked up from the timeline was, you don't fear telling off administrators, don't fear telling off football Kenya administration that you are wrong and right. You have been suspended from the game before because of your vocal points on what you say and what you do not say and all that. Give us a background on why were you suspended from football. Yet, everybody outside here knows that when it comes to running grass roads football, you are one of the people who knows how to run that. I think probably if we go back to 2015, when we engaged that working for extreme sports, we engaged the Federation previously extreme sports, you know, the Super 8 Soka Tournament has been there for many, many years. And you know that some of the people who are now in the Federation who are employees and coordinators of the Super 8 Soka Tournament, and it came to us as a surprise that these guys took us to court after even engaging them, engaging them, talking to them that we want to continue with what we were doing before. Because you remember the Super 8 was running from the year 2004 up to date. And most of the guys who were there, they've been part of the process of the tournament. So when Super 8 took us a short break, a three-year break, when it came back, we decided now we have to continue from where we left. So first of all we have to work with the Federation because previously it's the Federation who seconded all these guys to extreme sports. So we said we have to engage the Federation again and also go with the same, just do things the way we used to do before. So I wrote a letter to the Federation requesting for a meeting. They replied, they said we have to meet and discuss the modalities of running the tournament, what is your take as a Federation, what is our take as extreme sports. And that's how, we started that conversation and then we planned for a meeting which all of the Federation agreed to attend. But on the day of the meeting none of them showed up. So there were instructions from the then president that they should not attend that meeting. And reading my phone a few people is amazing, my brother Felix Imputs asking, and like Kenya Premier League which is a top flight football competition in the country, the competition you are running under your former boss Usain Muhammad, it's called Super 8 League Tournament. It used to attract huge crowds and a lot of marketing around it. What's been the secret behind this little known tournaments below the main tier attracting a lot of people coming to the stadium and like what we see in Kenya Premier League? You see it's all about your mindset and your thinking of football. You have to think about football from a business perspective and from a marketing perspective. Football is a multi-billion industry and football can pay if you manage it properly. So you see before we used to have that mentality what you call it in time mentality. Running things and professional. But you see when you join extreme sports we realize that football can be managed in a better way. So I really thank Usain Muhammad for what he has done for us. Some of us he shaped our lives in terms of managing management because we still had that mentality of running football. But when you join extreme sports we had to undergo a lot of training in regard to management. We got to how you approach things professionally. So that's how we came through. So that mentality was there. When I gained some really people were coming at nine. So we really changed that and we had long long sessions with teams to make them understand that this is the way to go in football. And even you had annual Gala Awards where those players who had performed very well could be rewarded for their efforts. These are things people thought cannot happen but they can happen at the grassroot. Colourful events that we used to attend some of them. We even won the best run grassroot league in Africa in 2017. You were rewarded by the Discovery Awards in South Africa. So it shows you that things can happen if you approach football professionally in terms of this is the best way to do it. Let's have that discipline. Professionalism, accountability and get people understand that football is not just marking the ground and asking people to play. And just sticking with the same because all comes in with this question. A lot of football lovers in the country have the opinion with regards to Usain Mohamed's ability to be the administrator of Kenyan. So maybe they believe that Usain Mohamed is the best FKF president Kenya will never have. How come he's not going for it? I think he learnt a lot from the last elections in 2011. He really looked at the Kenyan football stick holder, the mindset. He looked at the mindset of this person. The system scared him. This is somebody whose conscience does not even tell him that this is the best way to go. So he looked at them and nobody wanted, from the way they were talking they wanted change, but keep inside. Nobody wanted that change. So he just realized that it's a waste of time trying to tell these people this is the way to run football. But everybody always says that it's the best man to lead football. To me I agree because somebody I've worked in for over 10 years. And his professional approach to issues, to management is quite different from, I can say quite different from many football administrators around. So to me he could have been the best thing that could have happened for Kenyan football. But unfortunately I think he just felt that people don't, you can try to push something but it is not working. And then when we look at the National Executive Committee which now you are running, you want to go for on as a member. Mostly in most of the administrations that you have had in football is of yes man, yes man, yes man. People don't come out and question what is happening. You have been known to be questioning all these matters. But this time now you are running for that position and you want to sit in that committee. Why do you want that part? First and foremost the problem with people who hang on somebody's coat will end up being yes man. Because they will not be able to question some of his decisions. And I think even currently the likes of Nick Mwendo I think they need people like us to be able to tell them that this is wrong or not right. Because sometimes I don't become my enemy by telling you the truth. And you see I always say that when criticism can help you grow, constructive criticism can help you grow as a person as even as a leader or whatever. But if you look at somebody's criticizing the way you think, I'm saying constructive criticism whereby I want to tell you this is wrong, this is wrong, you should do it this way. I don't become an enemy. So that is the problem we have had. And I want to go in there to tell guys that we don't have to be puppets to be controlled and told go this way, go this way. When something is wrong is wrong. When we talk about so many things that are happening in football right from the grass to even to the top. People are quiet and they are sitting in the national executive. These are guys who are some of them were even with Nyamwea in the previous regime. Ya, and you expect probably they will bring change. I remember in 2011 most of the guys now with Nyamwea. Yes. We differed because they refused to support Usen Mohamed having even worked with him. Yes. They refused to support him and they opted to go the other way. Ya. And my question is four years down the line. They realized that they made a wrong choice. It proves that I was very right to tell them that that is not the best way to go. Ya. That was not a better candidate than Usen Mohamed. Ya. But we know very well in Kenya numbers don't lie and Nick Mwendoz as we speak is the incumbent. Yes. Which means he has a slight advantage over his opponents because I'm reliably told that most of the delegates are on his side. Considering that you are not affiliated to his wing of aspirations. How do you seek defying all odds to get elected in Nairobi? You see it's just to tell the delegate this is that you see people might look at Nick Mwendoz as a very very bad person. But Nick Mwendoz needs people who can tell him the truth and tell him that this is the way. Not a question of arguing or whatever. He needs people who can even be able to to face him and tell him that Mr. President here is not right. Ya. And you stick with what you want. You see my main problem with the football administration is that when things go right people keep quiet. So when I continue talking people look at me as that to me they always refer me as a biggest NA. As a rebel. Not even. I don't know how they always refer. You just at rate. I get caught on how they refer to me in some of their meetings. And they say I have no grudge with anybody. I stand for good management of football, professionalizing the management of the game. And also ensuring that we live illegally as administrators that whoever comes later. You see people have to remember that these are the institutions. Yes. Institutions are... I'll stay there forever. You'll never stay there forever. But what you leave behind. People talk of Mikey back in our day every now and then that he left a legacy in terms of how he ran this country. Those are things we want people to be talking about for us when we take a break and say now that time is up for us for others to come and manage football. But the fear of you will be... I don't fear anybody. I stand for I've been a player. I was recently elected as the president of Fuma Players. Players have faith in me. And when I declare I want to go for a seat they know that I'll be able to deliver. But we want football to be managed in a way that everybody is happy. Everybody is happy in terms of the development aspect. Where are we from the development? Do we have a very strong foundation for young players to grow? That is the most important thing. Before we talk about the change that we need in football and also the problem in football in Kenya as a whole. We are running for Nairobi. Give us a background of Nairobi as a county. If you interviewed everybody will be telling you that football the bedrock is western, coast and all that. But you realize that football in Kenya is actually played in Nairobi more than anywhere else in this country. Most of grass roots teams are busy. I remember there was a time I had a division of east and west. We had teams up to 20 league teams in Nairobi alone. So when you look at Nairobi as a county itself. Give us a background of this in Nairobi and what Nairobi in football is going through. You see I can maybe give you a background right from the days you were playing in Nairobi in the 80s. There was no sponsorship. But the way football was being run. We had even the lowest division was division 4. And we had the categories right from division 4 to division 1. Division 1 was the toughest league in Nairobi. The toughest league in Nairobi. Because I remember football was each province used to provide one winner. And then the same winner there will be a knockout for the former provincial boundaries. Each province could produce one winner. And then they play the playoffs and then they get the four teams that will go to the super league. Then it was called super league. Then they were what we call premier league now. To the super league. I'm telling you football in Nairobi was thriving. You could go to Udli grounds. Isili is playing speedways. Around 40 to 50,000 people watching that match. And that was just a normal low. That was just the top tier Nairobi league. You could go all over. We used to have close to 400 teams in Nairobi. Actively playing in the leagues. Football was vibrant. You could go to any field around Nairobi. You will find the ground is packed. People love football. When Isili was playing maybe against Bakles Bank or whatever. People could walk all from Kaunguari to go to Standard Chartered Bank. Go to Udli to go and attend those matches. The marketing was very simple. The newspaper daily they used to have a log in the sports page. And they fixed it for that weekend. So somebody will just buy a newspaper and say today this weekend this is where I want to go. And a small write up about the league. It was very simple. So football in Nairobi is the busiest football county in the country as you say. Because there are so many activities. So many activities. Probably if you go to Western. Western and Nyanza are well known for producing talents from the schools. Not from the clubs. From the schools. You go to Kamega and Musingu. You go to Kisumu Boys. They are known for producing players from the schools. But not from the clubs. So the most important thing is for us to go back to Nairobi. To go back to where Nairobi before is to make. First of all is to commercialize that league. Have a good professional management of that league. Let that league attract partners or sponsors who can come in. Because for instance if you remember just the other day.