Ever since I first met him at the Nation FM studios when we were both panellists on the 2014 Fifa World Cup talk show, the new Cecafa boss Auka Gecheo struck me as a man who knows first hand the game of football and the woes bedevilling the sport globally.
Specifically, a few years back, I listened to an interview he was having and when asked what ails Kenyan football, Auka, then the head of SuperSport East Africa said: “We have talented footballers. Our biggest problem is administration. Once we see some stability with FKF (Football Kenya Federation), we will see results. We just need to put our house in order.”
That was five years ago. Little did he know that years later, he would be thrust into football administration. Then, as the head of SuperSport in East Africa, Auka’s role was to market the region’s football through the continent’s leading pay TV sports channel.
During that period, the Kenyan Premier League was considered one of the best in the region, thanks to its visibility in the continent. Courtesy of live matches and its partnership with the Kenyan Premier League, several players secured contracts abroad.
Now that is water under the bridge, and Auka now has a bigger role to play in football away from the screen — to put the East Africa football house in order.
This week, the former rugby player was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) taking over from long serving compatriot Nicholas Musonye who stepped down after serving as the regional football body’s Secretary-General for two decades.
Auka’s role at Cecafa is cut out. He has to take the continent’s oldest regional tournament back to its glory days. By his own admission, in the interview he had five years ago, we have great footballers not only in Kenya but in the East Africa region.
During his unveiling, Auka pledged to transform Cecafa into a more vibrant and professional body. “My immediate task is to ensure Cecafa secures sponsors to support our tournaments,” Auka said.
Auka’s experience in regional sports is what makes him the right man to take over Cecafa which hosts some of the weakest teams in world football among them Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and South Sudan. One most important role he will have to play is to renegotiate with SuperSport to make a return not only back to Kenyan football but to the region in general.
As things stand now, regional football has been given total blackout when it comes to broadcasting, the result of which has been the dwindling standards of the game and disinterest from fans and sponsors. Case in point is the Kenyan Premier League.
Auka takes over when the region has only one player in the top leagues in the world — Tanzania’s Mbwana Samatta who plays for Aston Villa in the English Premier League (until a few weeks ago, there was also Kenya’s Victor Wanyama who moved to Canada from Tottenham Hotspur).
Auka will have to repackage regional football to build the capacity of its players to get opportunities in the top leagues in the globe.
“I know it is not going to be easy for me, I have a lot to learn, but I will be giving this my best shot,” Auka said.
Away from SuperSport, which closed their Kenyan shop four years ago, Auka’s life has mostly been centred on rugby. He played it in high school at Njoro Boys, played for Mean Machine at the University of Nairobi — a team which he also captained for two seasons — and also played in the national team.
He has also previously served as general manager of the Kenya Rugby Union.
East African football stands a distant behind the North and West. No country from the region has won the Africa Cup of Nations. Uganda once finished runner up. Will Auka make East African football tick?
