NAIROBI, Kenya, August 29- There is now way back for Adel Amrouche as coach of Harambee Stars with the team that left for Cairo in the early hours of Friday morning for their friendly against Egypt now under the firm control of Scotman, Bobby Williamson.
Speaking to Capital Sport, Football Kenya Federation boss, Sam Nyamweya, moved to clear the air on two claimants to the Stars head coach role, the Belgian who maintains his five-year contract is still in force and Williamson who departed with the team.
“I don’t discuss contracts with the media and in Africa, we don’t keep coaches who are not working. Amrouche was suspended by CAF for misconducted and he missed some games and we lost some of them.
“Did you want me to keep him? The position is don’t have him as a coach and we suffered as a result and we had to take a decision. He’s out and Harambee Stars who left for Cairo have a coach, Williamson,” the federation boss declared.
When pressed on the fate of Amrouche, whose one year ban was slashed to six games on appeal, having served half of the new sanction, Nyamweya disclosed the matter was now in the hands of lawyers from both parties.
“As an employer, we have contractual obligations to our employees and to avoid being sued, we cannot discuss them in public. We did not fire Adel, we had no problem with him, he was suspended by CAF making him incapable of discharging his duties.
“If he has any issues with us, he should send our lawyers to us and we are ready,” he charged.
Namweya denied he had met the Belgian to discuss his contract saying, “It is not true I met Adel, he should not come to the media, he should come to us,” despite allegations the pair met on Tuesday where the Belgian, who was hired in February last year, was assured “Williamson is in an acting capacity,” claims Capital Sport cannot independently verify.
Williamson who excused Gor Mahia trio, Jerim Onyango, defender David ‘Calabar’ Owino and forward Timothy Otieno from the tie due to club commitments, will be using the friendly to assess his charges in his first assignment.
The five-time African champions on the other hand will be using the build-up tie as preparation for their 2015 Africa Cup of Nations group qualifier against Senegal in Dakar next weekend.
“We have not done much just giving them a touch with the ball because the match is not that important to us but we don’t want to go there and get hammered which is a possible result because Egypt is a very good team especially while playing at home,” Williamson said before departing for Cairo.
The Scotsman, who has faced the Pharaohs when at the helm of Uganda Cranes, said the friendly will expose his locally based players to international platform.
“Local based players are capable even though we have a tough match against Egypt who are good in retaining the ball. We have to monitor and see what we need to improve on.
“The new players will find it difficult especially in Egypt’s friendly but it’s good since it will give them experience because they have the ability and the talent so it’s up to me to give them the confidence that I will certainly do that.”
Kenya has only beaten Egypt once in 18 encounters at the 1979 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with a 3-1 margin.
