Players’ complaints over coach with poor results forced FKF’s hand

James Waindi

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) yesterday parted ways with Harambee Stars head coach Sebastien Migne after a series of discussions that started last Thursday, following a spate of poor results and dressing room unrest.

FKF acting Chief Executive Officer Barry Otieno said the federation and Migne had agreed to terminate the contract on mutual consent. Initially, FKF had contracted Migne until 2021, tasking him with ensuring Kenya qualifies for Qatar 2022 World Cup and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Migne recently said at a press conference after neighbours Tanzania knocked Stars out of the Africa Nations Championships (CHAN) qualifiers, that it would be very expensive for a broke FKF to sack him as they would have to pay him all his dues until the end of his contract in 2021 at a time they were struggling to pay his monthly salary. It is not yet clear how the two parties have agreed to settle the issue.

“Consequently, FKF and Migne have agreed on a financial settlement over a period of time. The federation wishes to thank Migne for his exemplary work and high standard of professionalism during his tenure, which culminated in the country qualifying for the 2019 Afcon tournament for the first time in 15 years,” Otieno said.

He added: “The reorganisation and appointment process for a new technical bench is already underway and the team to steer Harambee Stars forward will be announced shortly.”

Migne, who had his own back room team of three in assistant coach Nicolas Bouriquett, goalkeeper trainer Guillame Coffy and osteopath specialist Ludovic Breul, is believed to have been receiving Sh3.5 million per month from the federation for his entire team.

According to a senior FKF official who sort anonymity, Migne had developed bad blood with a section of foreign-based national team players who complained about how he treated them.  The players approached the federation president Nick Mwendwa during a postmortem of the Afcon outing and expressed their reservations on the Frenchman.

The team’s poor run under his tutelage that saw him only win one match in the last five and the fact that he was earning high perks also fuelled his ultimate departure.