NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 23 – Posta Rangers head coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo is of the opinion that the Kenyan Premier League season should be called off if at worse, there is no sign of restarting by the end of June due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The league has been halted from last month after the government banned all public gatherings and the Ministry of Sports moved to shut down all facilities to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
And with the situation in the country yet to reach manageable levels, the possibility of the league resuming remains bleak.
“If you have played beyond 75 percent of matches in the season already, under severe circumstances in my opinion the league can be called off with a winner declared,” Omollo told Capital Sport.
He added; “There are three possible scenarios that can happen. One, the champion can be decided according to the standings as at the end of the first leg, or the champion can be decided as according to the standings when the league was halted.”
“The third scenario, which I don’t like very much is that the league can be cancelled all together and we start afresh. If by the end of June, the situation will not have improved, then in my opinion, I think we should go for option one or two.”
If Omollo’s recommendations were to go through, then that would mean Gor Mahia are declared champions while Chemelil Sugar joins Sony in relegation with Kisumu All Stars playing the play-off.
In the National Super League (NSL), Nairobi City Stars and Bidco United will earn automatic promotion while Vihiga United who were two points behind Bidco at third would engage Kisumu All Stars in the play-off.
But, this is not an idea that is welcome by most of the teams in the league with the likes of Tusker FC head coach Robert Matano already against the idea of declaring Gor champions.
Kakamega Homeboyz striker Allan Wanga is of the opinion that the top four should engage in a mini-league to find the league winner. His side was second in the standings with a seven-point gap between them and leaders Gor.
“I believe that we still stood a chance to vie for the title because if you look at the games which we had remaining and those that Gor had, our path was manageable. We should just do a mini-league between the top four and then find a winner,” Wanga told Capital Sport.
There were nine rounds of matches left in the season and Gor needed to win just seven of them to assure themselves of the title.
But the main battle was in the lower end of the league with Chemelil, Kisumu All Stars, Nzoia and Zoo Kericho all battling to avoid the chop. All Stars and Chemelil are both on nine points with All Stars placed higher with goal difference.
Zoo and Nzoia are 14th and 15th with 16 and 13 points respectively. With Sony already relegated, only one team would join them in the automatic swing door while number 16 on the log would face number three from the NSL for a play-off.
KPL CEO Jack Oguda in a previous interview told Capital Sport that the governing council is yet to come up with a road map, but remain vigilant of the situation to get the best way out.
The league had been scheduled to end in the last week of May while the new season was to start in August, conforming to the European calendar.
