Odhiambo made the allegations after their 1-0 win against Sofapaka in a Premier League fixture at Mbaraki Sports Club on Saturday, February 8th.
According to Odhiambo, who was the assistant coach to previous national team coach Engin Firat, most of the balls being provided by teams in the top flight are of low quality and can only be bought from supermarkets.
'I have forgiven Ken Odhiambo, he is my son'
While the comments were not received well by Sofapaka and other clubs in the top flight, Kalekwa has openly told Flashscore his decision to forgive Odhiambo, who at one time, played and coached the club in the league.
“I don’t think the comments were good, it was not good for Odhiambo to utter such comments, but in the spirit of football, I already forgave him,” Kalekwa told Flashscore in an exclusive interview. “It will be unfair for me to hold a grudge, he is my son, and he was here and coached Sofapaka, so I don’t want to dwell on the matter.
“It is over, we talked and I felt it was good to let it go.”
Kalekwa continued: “He clearly said that we are using balls from supermarkets, he is a son I sired and brought up, so couldn’t want action taken against him. When your son makes a mistake, you forgive him, and that is the rule of being a father, the kids will always abuse us, and they will forget where they came from.
“He was born at Sofapaka, he played for Sofapaka, he grew up at Sofapaka, he gave Sofapaka their first trophy, he helped us to win President’s Cup while featuring in the National Super League (NSL) while he was playing as a defender, and then he came back to train the same team, he is just like my son and I don’t want to discuss further the issue.
“But one thing I know, he was answered correctly by those people, who know him, and those who understand the team, many people answered him after the comments, and to be honest a team may be stable financially today, but tomorrow, you don’t have money, so it is not a permanent problem, every team is going through the same.”
During the interview, a fuming Odhiambo said: “And then the quality of balls that teams are providing for matchday, balls from supermarkets and you want them used for a Premier League game? What kind of a Premier League is this that we are playing using supermarket balls?”
“It is not possible, we must get quality balls for our matches, if you want everyone to enjoy football, bring quality balls, the recommended size five and you will see entertaining football, the balls we use don’t go far when you kick them because they don’t take enough pressure, and then we are allowing such things to happen, in a top-level league.”
Odhiambo continued: “It is not good for our game, it is not good for the development of our game, we should change some things and we must start with these match balls, they are not good enough and most of the teams don’t have quality matchday balls.”
Odhiambo went ahead to ask Sofapaka and teams that cannot afford quality matchday balls to quit the league altogether and further explained that for the Kenyan league to develop the issue of every team purchasing quality balls for matchday should not be negotiable.
“If your team doesn’t have money to buy quality balls then you don’t deserve to play in the Premier League, just exit, if you don’t have money it is better you stay at home, what are you going to do in the league if you don’t have money?” added Odhiambo.
“Better stay at home and go sell groceries, and if you don’t have money, let those teams that have money play in the league because it is wrong, the quality of football is deteriorating because of the quality of balls that we are using, others are size five but the pressure in it is not enough, even when the ball is kicked it can’t go beyond 10 metres.
“Those are some of the things that if we want our league to develop, we should not assume, we should not close our eyes, these are the kind of things that are finishing our football, low-quality balls, the poor state of match venues, those are some of the things bringing down our beautiful game and the early we improve on them, the better.”
While Odhiambo’s Bandari are sitting sixth in the 18-team league table with 32 points from 22 matches, Sofapaka are one place below them with 28 points from 21 matches.
