 In Kenya wa James O'Monda, I watched him in 2004 during the African Cup of Nations that took place in Egypt and Kenya was participating under Jacob Gostimula and they got eliminated at the group stage. I remember Denis Oliyech scoring during the last group clash against Bukina Faso that ended 3 nil in favor of Kenya. Good to see him back, he's my good friend. Jemo, good to see you, how are you doing man? I'm doing good, it's a pleasure coming back to yesterday. What has kept you, what is the secret behind your main stay? In 2004 you played for Kenya, you were amongst the strikers for the national team you guys got eliminated at the group stage, you had to wait for 15 years down the line we qualified again for continental showpiece in 2019 in Egypt, I don't know. How has it been like for you man? I sleep early. I never say, I know you will say I never drink frothy liquids. No, I won't say that. So besides sleeping early, what else do you do that keeps you going? No, I train a lot and engage with kids. So they keep me alert all the time. Ya, because when you engage with kids, they will make your brains work, they will ask you technical questions, you will have to over reason to respond to their issues. Especially modern kids, they are very inquisitive and they do a lot of research with the internet, they do a lot of research, so you want to be very sure with what you are saying otherwise they will correct you immediately if you say the wrong thing. So you need to really engage the kids, you need to do a lot of research so that you engage the kids. Ken and Tatiana, they were getting shocked when you were talking about 2004. They probably were not... They were toddlers. Maybe or not yet born. It's been two decades now. Why do you see Kenyan football heading? If you can just digress a little bit. The issue of Kenyan football, for me, I believe if we can get the club licensing back, then we could head somewhere and then get the club officials educated. Ya know, I retire from football, I get management of football and it's well. I don't have any knowledge of running a club, a professional club. How do I generate funds for the club? How do I attract sponsors for the club? How does the club get accountable for the small little money we get? So they also need education, but most of these CEOs and staff, they are the owners of the clubs, so they do whatever they want. Ken, I think whatever James is saying that besides having been a player, it doesn't qualify you outrightly to be a sporting manager. Besides that, you need to have an extra qualification in terms of having gone to school probably to study something related to sports development. You need to understand that management and actual playing sometimes are two different things. If we are to mirror some of the best leagues in the world, we look at the role of sporting director. It's not always someone who's played, but someone who can have an idea of how to grow this club. Managerial ability? Ya, someone who has a vision and a long-term project that is not necessarily just about the playing side, but also from how they hire the people above them, how they hire people all the way to the analysis in social media. So you should have someone in charge, someone who understands the whole dynamic of football rather than just the playing side because when you say professional, you have to understand a lot of things come into play, not just kicking the ball in the pitch before they come to get these people to kick this ball. How are they going to get them and how are they going to keep them comfortable and things like that. So it's not always playing doesn't necessarily qualify you for such a role, but what qualifies you for a role is your competence levels, I think. I think this is a conversation that we can preserve for another day because it cannot come to an end. So let's talk about Futsal. What's Futsal? Futsal is a game played indoors. It's five aside. I'm just correcting you. There is a keeper. There is a goalkeeper. So it's for outfield players playing against each other. A half takes 20 minutes. The whole program lasts for 40 minutes with a break in between. A 15 minute break in between. Futsal is played on a pitch equivalent of a basketball court. Mostly you go to Europe you'll find they play them in the gymnasiums where they play basketball. But you'll find the basketball rim is hanged somewhere. So they just put the goalposts and guys play Futsal. So it is a good spot. It's played indoors. You can play under any weather condition. Whether it's raining, sunny, you can play Futsal all year round. I was reading somewhere that it originated in South America where there were plenty of fans who were passionate about football but they got to have had scarcity of playing pitchers. It originated in Urukwai. Then there was a scholar that brought it to Brazil. So during that time you remember the guys who were working in plantations. When they had breaks they would organize for fiver side games and that is how Futsal grew in Brazil. And they are doing quite well now with Futsal. It has helped Naima, guys like Naima. You see these skills they have getting out of tight spaces it is because of Futsal training. So we really need to introduce Futsal in Kenya so that we get this aspect of the technical side of football. The players get to know how to play in small spaces and this is the thing, the in thing now in modern football. Look at Man City, out of small tight spaces things are done and beautiful goals are created and look at Bayan, look at these progressive sides. That is all they do. Recently you remember Obemayang was not playing for Chelsea and he flew to Milan to go and play in a Futsal tournament to keep fit. So these are avenues that we have not explored here in Kenya and not only in Kenya. Imagine there are only eight nations playing for Futsal. In the world? In Africa. Kenya is not one of them. So the last champion is Morocco. In the last cup of nations for Futsal Morocco are the champions. Egypt was previously the champions three times in a row and Libya also won it once. So there is an avenue for us. We could be the ninth nation playing in the next African cup of nations the Futsal version in 2024 and that will be the tournament used to get qualifiers for the world cup in 2024. So how is the reception like in Kenya? Are they embracing the sport? It's fantastic. Guys are embracing it. So we need to do a lot more. Do an outreach. We are trying to organize for a tournament that will be introductory in June. We will do it at Nyayo and we are looking to incorporate both boys and girls with an aim of getting these 15, 16, 17-year-old kids to play Futsal because you remember in 2026 we have the Youth Olympics in Dakar. San Yoko. And in that year that the World Cup is being played or the Olympics is being played they should be 15, 16, 17, 18-year-olds. So we are trying to look for early preparations for us to be enabled to play in 2026 Futsal Youth Olympics. Ken? I think just because he touched on skills if you compare football and Futsal you think Futsal is free. It's more free than football because football is technical really when you get to 11 aside because it's more about positional play but you look at Futsal, you look at the people who play it it gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with the ball to create your own skill and to showcase your brilliance there so I think that's the beauty of it as a game and also as he said playing out of tight spaces if you think if you train even for 11 aside you always have rondos so you have to play in small spaces because that helps you grow your ability to become a better footballer in the bigger pitch so I think for it to grow in this country because I personally believe that our football is not there you should talk about them even when you look at Brighton right now our football is not there so something like Futsal the tight spaces will be really really important in building players who can go and play wherever and show their skill because it's on the technical side so I think for Kenya we just have to now look at how we want to grow it because I've been seeing people play on the artificial grass but it's still football but for Futsal you still need to invest a little bit in maybe venue and whatnot but I think there is enough raw skill people do not even play football there is enough raw skill for Kenya to go into Futsal this is a great place this is a fantastic venture for it to keep growing in this country and I know you need to get sanctioned by Football Kenya Federation what are the steps you are taking to reach out to Nick Muenvalet body to ensure that your activities are in tandem with their aspirations and their laid down guidelines you are very right because with the structures we have currently Futsal and Beach Soka fall under the Federation and we are engaging them we are engaging them so that we can partner with them to manage Futsal on their behalf so it is an ongoing process and we believe something positive will come out of it because we have the technical ability to do it you remember last year we travelled to Germany we went and got some valuable information that can help us develop Futsal in Kenya so I believe something good will come out of it so in Germany the sport is rampantly developed it is professional what was the learning curve I don't know if I can quantify but just being there watching them do their things we had the pleasure of watching the under 19 Hamburg Futsal team they select Hamburg Futsal team training for their national championships so that they select the national team for Germany that was the under 19 side so they have under 13 they have under 15 they have under 17 they have under 19 both Futsal and Futsal and that was the region the regional team so like Nairobi we have the regional team for Nairobi we do our selection from under 13 to under 19 then the coast they also have theirs you remember the 8 provinces we had so the 8 will meet in a national championship then we do a selection over hold their gems of course let's take a short commercial break before we resume the conversation regarding development of Futsal in Kenya and the state of the game it's a newly introduced sport, James Omond of course is the pioneer for Kenyan internationally prominently featured for Kenyan national team around the stars and his last appearance was during African Cup of Nations in Tunisia in 2004 where Kenyan got eliminated at the group stage but now is venturing into a different sporting discipline that is seeking to have it developed locally don't go away, stay tuned, it's the touchline and continue talking to us