The ceremony had two main goals, one was to show the support for the country’s football federation and the other was to thank and see off the Somali national U-20 squad who returned from
More than 150 people including, Kenyan guests, former national team players, former coaches, Somali journalists whom fled from Mogadishu and dignitaries form Somali sports community in Kenya had taken part in the well-organized dinner ceremony.
Manager of Somali football team in
“Somali football family members are doing the national task every where in the world and here in Nairobi we have the East Leigh stars who are participating in the Kenyan league—the team played 20 matches and we have had 11 victories, 5 draws and 4 defeats, so we are also happy that we are doing much work here” he added.
Abdullahui Yusuf Baskuwale, him self a former national team coach who delivered a short address at the honor dinner started his speech with congratulations he sent to all Somalis and in particularly to the Somali Football federation dignitaries whom he said are working day and night to develop football in the war-ravaged country.
“While
Mohamed Salad Daqarre, a co-organizer of the dinner and the chairman of Midnimo football club for his part said that he was very much happy to see such pleasant faces of Somali football family members coming together and discussing the future of Somali football and how to develop it.
He presented 20 balls to the manager of the Somali football team in Kenya the East Leigh stars and hoped them to win in the on going 3rd division football league in Kenya.
Abokar Mohamed Sheik, the deputy chairman of the well known Somali football club Banadir Telecom and one of the financers of the honor dinner praised Somali Football federation for the democratic election which was held in the volatile
“We see some tangible progress, because as you know Somalia had never had two teams going for international matches at one time, but now it happened and as you see the U-20 is coming from Asmara, while the U-17 is currently training in Doha the capital of Qatar in preparations for a hot contest against Egypt next moth, so we are very grateful to our Football federation which is doing more than its capacity” he said.
The leader of Somali sports community in Kenya and former national team player Anas Ali Mahmoud said that his community is prioritizing two more important goals: to promote Somali football in Kenya and to fight Somali youths there against using drugs or falling into other kinds of crimes.
“The East Leigh stars are making progress, but what we are lacking is financial support, because football cannot continue with out enough budgets, so we call on the Somali business people in
He also asked the UN office for peace and sport, the Nairobi-based embassies of the countries interested in
“We are sending a particular request to the US embassy in Kenya which is very much interested in the continuation of Somali football activities here in Kenya and we are grateful to Ambassador Michael Ranneburger and the staff of his embassy who have many times in the past organized football activities in Kenya although they had never had any contacts with the East Leigh stars or the sports community here in Kenya, but we are very hopeful that we will work together in the near future” the Boss of Somali sports community in Kenya added.
Finally Mr. Dennis Shilibwa, the chairman of Football Kenya Limitted (FKL) in the
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The team is now back in the volatile Mogadishu, where artilleries, tanks and mortar fires are hitting every where, as fighting between Islamist insurgents on one side and Somali government forces and AU peacekeepers on the other side is escalating.
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