Over the years, Makolanders FC and Mathare United have been the cream of the country’s women football.
This is not the case anymore as they have been relegated to the first division next season.
Makolanders fate was sealed on Saturday June 5 when they went down 3-0 to Kayole Starlets at the Camp Toyoyo in what was a painful afternoon for the most common Women’s soccer team in the entire East Africa.
Makolanders who have been playing top tier women’s club football in the country since 1993 but when they took on the pitch, they looked a devastated side that had just come to honour the fixture.
A Leslie Otieno brace and another by Juliat Auma sunk the Rio Tinto and now they have to plan again, but it won’t be easy according to their assistant coach Micheal Okanga.
“Since Makolanders was founded in 1993, it has always traded at all high levels. It’s our first time we’re being relegated. What a pain,” Okanga said.
“With our club experiencing financial challenges, it’s been so difficult putting the team together. There has been motivation.”
“We could not enough to attract high-profile players, and we had no sponsorship. All players just volunteered to come for training and honour matches,” he added.
That’s been so stressful. Look at other teams and tell me which team is struggling. Only Makolanders and Mathare who have faced the cut as we speak,”
“The money that was sent to us by the federation was not enough to help us run our operations smoothly, only Ksh 200,000 hit our accounts in the first leg, the rest has never been deposited and the last league match is on Saturday,” he told TeamKenya.
“At the moment, it will be difficult for community based clubs to survive, the likes of Makolanders and Mathare United can barely make ends meet like institutional clubs.” Okanga added.