WEEKLY BUZZ: Hope for revival of inert Kenyan football, +254 still the marathon address
Reading Time: 4min | Mon. 10.10.22. | 12:20
Read all the major news in sports from last week
There is renewed optimism in FIFA lifting a debilitating suspension from football slapped on Kenya following what Zurich honchos termed ' government interference,.
The Kenyan public had then celebrated a government move to kick out Football Kenya Federation National Executive Committee alongside its secretariat.
The consequences of this move elicited dirges rather than more celebrations and ululations as Kenyan football went into inertia: No international competitions for the national teams, clubs locked out of continental championships and a legal conundrum over promotion and relegation of teams.
Recent elections in Kenya however, ushered in a President deemed friendly to the ousted FKF executive led by Nick Mwendwa who wasted no time into leading his erstwhile marginalized NEC into FKF headquarters albeit 'illegally' according to the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the 'mess' Amina Mohamed.
With the much maligned FKF Transition Committee term ending in less than one week and Amina Mohamed's powers to make appointments clipped by the new president of the republic, the football community is waiting anxiously for return to 'normalcy' with Mwendwa's NEC, never mind Mwendwa and his team were subjects of widespread hate and condemnation for a flurry of 'ills'.
Who runs the world? Kenyans
Perhaps, Beyonce should be compelled to do a rendition of her hit song in 2011 'Run the World (Girls)', and instead of the famous 'Who run the world? Girls (girls)', have something like 'Who runs in the world? Kenyans (Kenyans).
It was a doubles delight in Chicago during the Chicago Marathon on Sunday as Kenyans scooped four podium finishes, two in the men's race and two in the women, finishing first in the two races.
Ruth Chepngetich came so close to the World Record over the distance, missing it by just 14 seconds, as she led her compatriot Vivian Kiplagat who finished third, in a race she had started out in an explosive manner as she sought to make a comeback after a health issue forced her out of the World Championships in Oregon.
Benson Kipruto emulated his brother Dickson Chumba for his win in 2015, cruising to victory on Sunday with yet another Kenyan in John Korir settling for third place.
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Marathon action did not stop at Chicago as Philimon Kipchumba and Agnes Keino set course records at the Generali Munich marathon the same day.
On his debut Kipchumba crossed the finish line in Munich’s Olympic Stadium in 2:07:28 while Keino clocked a personal best of 2:23:26, improving the course record by almost nine minutes.
Arsenal are the real deal after another impressive win
Week after week Arsenal are in our Weekly Buzz. Last week, the Gunners were decisive in the North London derby and defeated Tottenham 3-1, and if anyone still had any doubts about Mikel Arteta’s men, Sunday’s 3-2 win over Liverpool once again proved they are (finally) doing something right at the Emirates. Granted, Liverpool are in a crisis of its own, but that does’ undermine Arsenal’s win. They were better and more aggressive, Saka and Martinelli were causing problems for Liverpool full-backs, and what is the most important thing – they were concentrated and focused enough to prevail Liverpool’s comeback from 1-0 and 2-1 down and still score that third and final goal for the victory. They still top the Premier League and although they will probably lose the title race with Manchester City, they should be very satisfied with themselves.
Derby weekend across Europe
This was a fruitful week in Europe as far as big matches were concerned. Apart from Arsenal – Liverpool game, two big derbies were played elsewhere. Current Serie A champions AC Milan won comfortably against Juventus in the oldest derby in Italy. Chelsea’s old boy Fikayo Tomori scored the first goal before Real Madrid’s loanee Brahim Diaz scored the screamer for the final 2-0.
There was no uncertainty and excitement in this match, unlike Der Klassiker, played the same day in Dortmund. Bayern looked like winning it easily with 2 goals advantage in the last 15 minutes, but Borussia managed to squeeze in two goals of it’s on, the second one in the 94th minute and you can imagine the atmosphere at the packed Westfalen stadium at the moment…
This and that
The world of international football was as interesting as usual with various topics. We found out that Erling Haaland’s wage is actually around 900.000 pounds per week, which makes him the highest-paid player in the world, after Mbappe of course. Sad stories about former PSG players were revealed too. Ednison Cavani revealed that he went to therapy after a 6-1 thrashing from Barcelona in 2017 and talked about mental health. Angel Di Maria was the subject of another robbery.
After experiencing the horrible event in Manchester and Paris, the Argentinian was again the target of criminals, this time in Turin. Luckily for him, he was safe and the burglars were arrested before doing any damage. And another milestone for Cristiano Ronaldo – he scored the winner for Manchester against Everton which was his 700th goal in club football, 9 more than the second-placed Lionel Messi. So far he scored 450 goals for Real, 144 for Manchester, 5 for Sporting, and 101 for Juventus.
