Bafana Bafana legend Benni McCarthy has started stamping his authority on his Kenyan team after pulling out of a regional tournament this week over poor facilities.
McCarthy withdrew his Kenyan team from a CECAFA four-nations tournament that also had Senegal, Uganda and hosts Tanzania, which was meant to prepare his players for the upcoming 2024 African Nations Championships (CHAN 2024).
The former AmaZulu and Cape Town City coach arrived in Tanzania with his team last weekend but by Monday afternoon, they had left, just hours before playing their opening match against the host nation.
Kenya pulled out at the advice of McCarthy, who did not like the playing surface, an artificial turf, as well as sub-standard training facilities in Karatu, Tanzania and he has now given reasons why he could not take risks.
Benni justifies withdrawal from pre-CHAN tournament
“What happened in Tanzania was an unfortunate event. We went there with good intentions but for footballing reasons, it was not to our satisfaction,” McCarthy told the media in Nairobi on Wednesday.
“The team as well as the technical bench agreed that were we to continue with the tournament then it would set us back majorly in terms of injuries to certain players. We think very highly of ourselves.”
McCarthy says the decision was meant to ensure his players train at the right facilities so that there are no excuses when they underperform at CHAN 2024, where they are in a tough Group A that has Morocco and DR Congo, both two-time winners, COSAFA champions Angola and Zambia.
“The group that we are in is a group of death and if we are not properly prepared, we will have shortcomings and people will ask questions and I feel like we did not want to make any excuses as to why we have difficulties in the group stages,” he added.
Bafana legend keen on best possible preparations
“Coming back to Kenya was the best possible way that will give us the best chance of going past the group stages and even though it is such a difficult group because where we were meant to train was really not ideal.
“We were going to spend seven days there and two days of good training sessions and five days of looking at each other, high-fiving each other and hoping that we will be able to come back and compete and give the best that we can in CHAN.
“Because of those reasons, we decided the conditions were not favourable so we came back to Kenya where we have good facilities and pitches to train.”
The Harambee Stars will begin their CHAN campaign against DR Congo on August 3 in the tournament set to be hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
