Benni McCarthy explains decision to skip CECAFA pre-CHAN tournament

Kenya national team head coach Benni McCarthy has come out to explain why Harambee Stars pulled out of the CECAFA pre-CHAN tournament in Arusha.

Kenya was among the invited nations to feature in the tournament which was to be used as a curtain raiser ahead of the 2024 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in August. However, Kenya withdrew at the eleventh hour leaving Tanzania, Uganda and Senegal to battle it out.

“Very good to be back, very good environment, facility is good, yeah. I think Tanzania was just a misfortune, you know, I think we went there with good intentions but unfortunately for football reasons, for football decisions, it wasn’t satisfactory,” McCarthy told Flashscore.

“The team, and the technical team, came together, we just said that we think very highly about ourselves and we want to have best preparations for CHAN, we want to get ready for CHAN, and if we want to continue in the tournament, it could have set us back majorly probably losing players to injuries, because the conditions were not favorable for us to work in.”

He added: “I think where we were meant to train was really not ideal, and we were going basically to have seven days there, and have two days of good training sessions, and five days off, and hoping that we would be able to come back and compete in CHAN.

“So, because of those reasons, we sat together as a team, and said that if the conditions are not favourable, then we rather come back to Kenya where we do have the facilities, and the right training pitches to train and maximise our sessions and our planning so that we can be ready for CHAN, so that was the main reason, football reason, nothing else.”

Kenya are drawn in Group A of CHAN alongside DR Congo, Morocco, Zambia, and Angola.