The Somali sporting community in Kenya held a very huge ceremony at the Kilimanjaro Restaurant in Nairobi on Friday evening to show their support for last month’s election congress of Somali Football Federation (SFF) in the presence of high level Somali-Kenyan football dignitaries.

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 Asmara where it participated in the 2010 CECAFA tourney for friendship and development.

 

More than 150 people including, Kenyan guests, former national team players, former coaches, Somali journalists who 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 Kenya the East Leigh stars and former national team coach Abdi Farah Ali who first addressed at the ceremony praised the Somali football federation for its huge activities in the lawless country.

 

“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 Somalia is experiencing on of the most dangerous times yet, we see that SFF is doing a huge work, so we have to encourage and congratulate it” he said adding that the East Leigh stars in Nairobi are also stepping up.

 

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 3^rd 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 Mogadishu on July 19^th this year saying that SFF had taken unprecedented steps.

 

“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 Kenya to support the East Leigh stars who have been making huge progress for the past few years”

 

He also asked the UN office for peace and sport, the Nairobi-based embassies of the countries interested in Somalia to assist the East Leigh stars, saying that he is hopeful that the team will in the near future play in the Kenyan premier league for first division clubs.

 

“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 Ranneberger 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 Nairobi province, a close friend of the Somali football family in Kenya who was honored to address at the ceremony praised Somali people for their commitment in football.

 

“Somalia is at war and football is developing in Somalia, I could not believe that such hard work can be done in a war-weary country like Somalia, but it really happened” Mr. Shilibwa stated sending his best congratulations to the Somali team for its hard working and good performance although it was not able to reach the semis of the CECAFA U-20 tourney for friendship and development held in Asmara.

 

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.

 

Somali Football Media Department

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Email:somalifootballmedia@gmail.com