I wonder how SS arrived at this decision. I get the feeling KPL/IDAC didn't have the balls to punish Gor, so they passed the monkey to SS and SS being foreigners and having no proper knowledge of the business case Gor presents to the KPL decided to act.

SS must have consulted the self promoting local soccer experts like Carol Radul and arrived at the decision to shoot themselves in the foot.

Knowing the Gor fans, SS will be paying for this decision for the next 50 years.

My main problem is the way we dump this hooliganism problem on K'ogalo (the club). What should be their role in stopping hooliganism, why should they be condemned if a random somebody decides to disrupt a match because he does not like the refs decision. How do the police come into this, a soccer match is a public event and the police should take full responsibility for security. I believe a club's/KPL's role should be to arrange for security in line with KPL's guidelines. If the police cannot guarantee security, then they should say this so the game is not played.

@ Obi....SS have got no interest in what Gor have to offer business-wise. The gate collection is collected and accounted for by KPL na hao wakora wengine. SS main interest in Kenya is EPL which has probably seen their revenues from DSTV subscription increase in the last few seasons....I bet Ugandans and Tanzanians are probably more passionate about their football league than Kenyans.

SS was pissed because they stoned their crew and Angie Musira had to have nine stitches...oh!

FACT...

Me and Mine only started attending live matches when they appeared on SS. The fact that SS was broadcasting the matches gave us confidence that the game was no longer watched by Hooligans. I even convinced my Boss to sponsor 250 employees to watch a couple of games.. Wacha the stones started flying.. Hata kwa gazeti sitaki kujua whether the team is winning or losing and neither do my colleagues

Why should I risk having my eye torn out by a flying projectile to find out which team is responsible yet I have a sizeable television at home that allows me to enjoy the same game? and better yet... SS have gone ahead and removed the rubbish to allow us to watch the games that are won by playing the piece of leather and not chunks of rock... BTW, you people are naive enough to think that SS will continue to provide funds to a club whose games they are not airing... You must have some serious faith..

[quote=freiks]YES THE DISPLINARY COMMITEE DOES WHAT I EXPECTED

http://www.standardmedia...d=2000037505&cid=38[/quote]

Kudos to the IDAC.

I am sure the sympathizers of hooliganism will be falling over each other to help GOR pay the damages.

Actions, stone age or otherwise have consequences. IDAC should even have banned this team to playing behind closed doors for next game(s) as CAF & FIFA do. If they persist, with all due respect can someone pls take their home games to Kisumu City.

Once again, TBwana......sober mind!!!
By TBwana

I listened to Head of Supersport Africa Gary Rathbone speak on a local radio sports show and convinced myself that there must be a deadly weed this dude has been smoking since he arrived in Kenya.

From his foreign accent you can bet I didn’t get him clearly on whatever he was saying but I was only interested on reasons he had for the decision Supersport took recently to ban live airing of Gor Mahia matches.

Ban, suspend, expel, interdict, reduce, exclude, pause, stop… all those words do not mean anything different to me. All I know for now is that Gor has been blacked out…oh blackout is the word. Plainly put, you will not watch a match pitting Gor Mahia FC against any team in the KPL at least till the end of the season.

I waited anxiously to get Gary’s justification for the k’Ogalo blackout because I rarely speculate. The frequent violent scenes in the stadium when Gor is playing are not ‘very pleasant’.

Then he chorused that boring line of ‘Gor fans should channel their grievances in more civilized ways, if they have any… I know Rachier is a brilliant chairman and he will organize stuff in Gor…I need an INITIATIVE from the club to root out these chaotic fans…the club will be back on air’.

In short the good manager, on phone from Naivasha at the time of the radio interview, was saying that Gor’s blackout resulted from the hooliganism so as a professional firm they had to take certain measures to fight hooliganism and root out what www.kpl.co.ke editor Gishinga Njoroge calls ‘thuggish elements’. Cool.

So why do I think someone smokes some Nigerian wiwi? What is the target audience of live TV coverage? The person who watches TV is a member of a branch called Sofa-Set among Gor Mahia fans. This person doesn’t go to the stadium because he is either waiting for a Man-U/Arsenal match or he fears Gor hooligans.

So he’d rather coil himself on his couch and guard his remote jealously or go to the bar and shout loudest as he orders barmaids around while claiming Gor fans are too rowdy for him to go to the stadium.

The point here is that the punishment from Supersport has been meted on the wrong people. The purported hooligans who cause chaos in the stadium do not watch Gor on TV, and I think Supersports should know that.

They are so busy causing chaos that they don’t have time to watch anyone’s TV. So to blackout Gor because its fans are hooligans is to punish very peaceful people who are at home and probably have no idea where Nyayo stadium is. The hooligans are actually still waiting to be punished.

Ok, let me be Mobutu in Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost and ask the UN to ‘reason soberly’. Let’s say the penalty is rightly administered and the cameras pulled out of the stadium. What would be achieved by this? Would this make the ‘hooligans’ get baptized and applaud the referees for blatant mistakes?

Some punishments are laughable. It reminds me of Frenchman Patrice Vieira who merely pulls up his socks and leaves the pitch without a protest in the many occasions he’s shown the red card. Such are the punishments one receives while smiling.

Certain demystification needs to be done here. Supersport came into the league in 2008 after having seen the progress (albeit slow) of football in the country.

Football fans were coming back to the stadium, as many scribes like reporting. Attracted by the ‘football fans coming back to the stadium’ and the threat of GTV, Supersports showed an unbelievable appetite for Kenyan football.

So which fans were these who were coming back to the stadium if they were not Gor’s? I don’t know of any other club that gives KPL hype as much as Gor’s. Gor is KPL’s top brand. It is what Coke is to Coca-Cola Company, what Tusker lager is to EABL and what Omo is to Unilever Company.

Like Berlin, you touch Gor the whole KPL screams.



Tbwana.

TAZ,for a clubless fello like you I understand,
I hope we shall win our two games at hand!!!