McKinstry slams Firat's comments on Kenyan League

Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry has called on Harambee Stars tactician Engin Firat to instead of always looking at the problems in the Kenyan football league(s), search for solutions and find ways in which the national team’s outlook and performances can improve.

McKinstry, as part of his pre-match talk against Bandari on Thursday, was responding to sentiments made by Firat in a radio interview over the weekend, when he “challenged local players to desire to play in top leagues outside Kenya if they are to improve their skills and help the national team get better.”

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Also in his tirade, Firat indicated that the Kenyan league had not shown tremendous improvement compared to the Tanzanian league, and that is why a lot of local players had been crossing the border.

On Kenya’s league stagnation, McKinstry told the club media: “In all leagues, unless you are the Bundesliga, English Premier League, La Liga or Serie A, which don’t have much to improve since they are already on top of the world, there are another 205 leagues all over that can improve, and that’s the same here in Kenya. We can improve.”

In comments directed to Firat, McKinstry, who’s 10 year sojourn in Africa - admittedly his second home away from home - has seen him manage Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, added: “But I also think that if you are only looking for problems, then you’ll never find the solutions.

“On the other hand if you are looking for the good things, what we are good at, and emphasizing on what a nation and a player is good at, don’t come in and say ‘this is how I play and so we have to play like this in Kenya.’”

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“This is all about finding out what a national game looks like and building on that. For me, everyone can have their own opinion. I’ve had lots of success with national teams in the past, and all of that has been about working with what we had and trying to add on top of it as opposed to looking for the problems.”

McKinstry is not the only football stakeholder in the country who has leant on differing with Firat, as his predecessor in the national team set-up - Jacob “Ghost” Mulee - in an interview with Mozzart Sport said that he only partly agreed with the Turkish saying: “I would say yes and no regarding his sentiments.

“No because, there are many factors affecting our local league that need to be sorted out and we will have the quality. The biggest problem in the local league is the lack of serious sponsorship and bad pitches our teams play in."

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Mulee also added that there were some players in the Kenyan league who just stand out and should be given a chance to fight for a position in the team together with their foreign counterparts.

Harambee Stars are this month scheduled to play in a four nation tournament in Malawi that will act as the nation’s preparations for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.