Kenya in a race against time to set up 2024 Chan fan zones
The government and Kenya’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) were on Thursday racing against time to set up six fan zones across Nairobi ahead of Harambee Stars’ final Group ‘A’ match of the tournament.
Harambee Stars play Zambia on Sunday at the 48,000-seater Moi International Sports Centre (MISC) Kasarani from 3pm. Confederation of African Football (Caf) has reduced the stadium’s capacity to 27,000 due to security breaches during Kenya’s matches against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Morocco.
The fan zones are aimed at catering for ticketless fans, and to prevent overcrowding at match venues, particularly when Harambee Stars are playing. They will be set up at Uhuru Park in Nairobi’s CBD, at Lucky Summer-Ngomongo area in the space behind MISC Kasarani Stadium, at Dandora Stadium, Utalii (Stima Club), at the Jacaranda Grounds, and at Kibera DC Grounds.
Kenya’s LOC chairman, Nicholas Musonye, on Thursday told the Daily Nation that the Ministry of Sports had begun the process of procuring the items needed to set up the fan zones, among them giant screens.
He said that all the six fan zones should be operational by tomorrow evening.
“We must have them ready and functioning by Saturday evening,”Musonye said. He assured fans of adequate security at the fan zones.
“We want to make them comfortable as well. Security will be provided because we must also ensure safety of the equipment there,” Musonye added.
The government has come under scrutiny over failure to provide funds for the LOC to set up the fan zones at the beginning of the tournament as planned.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Sports and Culture on July 24, LOC Chief Executive Officer Mike Rabar said lack of adequate funds forced his team to shelve plans to set up 60 fan zones across the country.
Instead, the LOC resorted to having only one fan zone at Uhuru Park, but that also was not set up due to financial constraints.
“The plan was to go across the country but due to budget constraints, we have now pushed that to 2027 Afcon. We intend to have 60 fan zones across the country, that was the plan,” he added.
It was only after scores of fans breached security ahead of Kenya’s highly-anticipated match against Morocco on Sunday at MISC Kasarani that the government finally agreed to construct fan zones.
Caf has fined Football Kenya Federation a total of Sh12.8 million due to security breaches by fans in five matches that have taken place in Nairobi.
Thanks to the chaos witnessed at MISC on Sunday, CAF has also reduced the capacity of the venue to 27,000 for all Kenya’s matches.
Caf has warned that failure to implement the new measures will lead to more serious sanction, including finding alternative venues for Harambee Stars to play their home matches.
On Wednesday, Sports CS Salim Mvurya admitted the government’s failure to prevent the crisis.
“We have had gaps, and some have led to sanctions. We have assured CAF we will support FKF to close those gaps,” he said.
Fan zones are synonymous with big sports events. For instance, the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar had several fan zones. The Fifa Fan Festival at Al Bidda Park attracted around 70,000 daily visitors.
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