It`s like Raila meeting Kivuitu for tea--says "Ghost" Mulee
By Robin Toskin
One of the longest chapters in Kenyan football has been closed after Tusker FC announced that it had sacked coach Jacob "Ghost" Mulee.
This means that for the first time in 22 years Mulee, who is fondly known as "Ghost", will have to look for a new job, a month after the team won the coveted East and Central Africa Club Championship (Cecafa).
Effectively, "Ghost", who is also the immediate past coach of the national team, Harambee Stars, is free to ‘haunt’ another club after Tusker fired him.
It is a relationship that started more than two decades ago after he was recruited as a reserve goalkeeper by Patrick Naggi, who was then the team manager at Tusker.
And after the champions ignominiously lost 2-1 at football Lilliputians, Western Stima, on Saturday, the Tusker management felt it had had enough of "Ghost".
"At this rate we are afraid we will soon be fighting against relegation. We have reached a decision to try another person," club chairman Henry Emuya told FeverPitch on the telephone.
Emuya said the EABL board also took issue with Mulee’s decision to share out the $30,000(Sh2.04m) prize money the club won when it beat Uganda’s URA 2-1 in the regional championship final held in Tanzania last month.
I saw it coming"Mulee’s unilateral decision to share out the prize was wrong. It is the board that is charged with making such decisions. It is not a one man’s job," Emuya said. Mulee was defiant after the sacking, describing it as normal.
"It is life. I saw it coming. It could have happened before the Club championship in Tanzania, but after we won it cooled matters a bit," Mulee said after the sacking.
"I know my decision to share out the money to the players infuriated them. But I had to keep the promise I had made to the players."
He went on: "I was handed the letter and yes, the sharing out of the prize money was raised. My refusal to appear before KPL is another reason and also the poor results in the league," Mulee said.
He cited his refusal to appear before the KPL for criticising referees as having rubbed the Tusker management the wrong way.
"They say it projected Tusker in bad light. I mean, there is no way I would have appeared before KPL which has Bob Munro who I strongly feel has been influencing certain things within it," Mulee said.
"It is like Raila meeting ECK chairman, Kivuitu after the bungled elections. There is so much bad blood that I don’t think I would get a fair hearing," he added.
The writing has been on the wall as the electrocution by Stima was Tusker’s third successive defeat and fourth in five matches, having lost 2-0 to World Hope and 3-2 to Red Berets.
Tusker have been anything but inspiring in their title defence having also lost to struggling Ulinzi Stars and Mathare United who did a first ever double against them.
The 2008 football season could not have been worse for Mulee after Kenya Football Federation and KPL ditched the 43-year-old as Harambee Stars coach and replaced him with his arch-rival and Mathare United tactician Francis Kimanzi.
One of the longest chapters in Kenyan football has been closed after Tusker FC announced that it had sacked coach Jacob "Ghost" Mulee.
This means that for the first time in 22 years Mulee, who is fondly known as "Ghost", will have to look for a new job, a month after the team won the coveted East and Central Africa Club Championship (Cecafa).
Effectively, "Ghost", who is also the immediate past coach of the national team, Harambee Stars, is free to ‘haunt’ another club after Tusker fired him.
It is a relationship that started more than two decades ago after he was recruited as a reserve goalkeeper by Patrick Naggi, who was then the team manager at Tusker.
And after the champions ignominiously lost 2-1 at football Lilliputians, Western Stima, on Saturday, the Tusker management felt it had had enough of "Ghost".
"At this rate we are afraid we will soon be fighting against relegation. We have reached a decision to try another person," club chairman Henry Emuya told FeverPitch on the telephone.
Emuya said the EABL board also took issue with Mulee’s decision to share out the $30,000(Sh2.04m) prize money the club won when it beat Uganda’s URA 2-1 in the regional championship final held in Tanzania last month.
I saw it coming"Mulee’s unilateral decision to share out the prize was wrong. It is the board that is charged with making such decisions. It is not a one man’s job," Emuya said. Mulee was defiant after the sacking, describing it as normal.
"It is life. I saw it coming. It could have happened before the Club championship in Tanzania, but after we won it cooled matters a bit," Mulee said after the sacking.
"I know my decision to share out the money to the players infuriated them. But I had to keep the promise I had made to the players."
He went on: "I was handed the letter and yes, the sharing out of the prize money was raised. My refusal to appear before KPL is another reason and also the poor results in the league," Mulee said.
He cited his refusal to appear before the KPL for criticising referees as having rubbed the Tusker management the wrong way.
"They say it projected Tusker in bad light. I mean, there is no way I would have appeared before KPL which has Bob Munro who I strongly feel has been influencing certain things within it," Mulee said.
"It is like Raila meeting ECK chairman, Kivuitu after the bungled elections. There is so much bad blood that I don’t think I would get a fair hearing," he added.
The writing has been on the wall as the electrocution by Stima was Tusker’s third successive defeat and fourth in five matches, having lost 2-0 to World Hope and 3-2 to Red Berets.
Tusker have been anything but inspiring in their title defence having also lost to struggling Ulinzi Stars and Mathare United who did a first ever double against them.
The 2008 football season could not have been worse for Mulee after Kenya Football Federation and KPL ditched the 43-year-old as Harambee Stars coach and replaced him with his arch-rival and Mathare United tactician Francis Kimanzi.
posted by mcGregory Gripen @ 3:42 AM
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