All the President's Cup knock-out soccer tournament matches have been put off until the end of July, Kenya Football Federation acting secretary Allan Chenane said yesterday.

"The fixtures are off for two months as we concentrate on Harambee Stars who face three crucial remaining African Nations Cup matches between June and July," he said. "We do not want to interrupt the national team's important programme."

However, Chenane made it clear that this, in no way, affected the Kenya Champions' League's grand finale on June 1 which must go on as arranged. 

As a result, he said, he has had to turn down a joint request from Nzoia Sugar and Mumias Sugar to shelve their rescheduled Champions' League semi-final at the Sudi Stadium until Saturday.

Tusker had also appealed to the KFF to postpone their tie against Coast Stars. But this, too, has been rejected. This means both the rearranged Champions League semi-finals will be staged at Mombasa Municipal Stadium and Sudi Stadium this afternoon.

The two games were originally scheduled for last Sunday, but had to be hurriedly called off at the eleventh hour as the four finalists had players in the Harambee Stars' team which left for Khartoum for an international friendly against Sudan.

The winners of today's fixtures face off in Sunday's grand finale. It will be part of the 40th Madaraka Day anniversary celebrations.

Tusker take a one-goal lead to the second-leg at the Mombasa Municipal Stadium having controversially won the first-leg tie at home. The Mombasa-based side are hell bent on turning the tables on the bottlers to prove a point.

The Battle of Western between Nzoia and Mumias is balanced on a knife edge after the sides fought out a goalless draw at Mumias Sports Complex the previous weekend.

Nzoia have the home ground advantages and are expected to field their international stars including the duo of Bernard Mwalala and Hilary Echesa. Mumias will call on the likes of Bernard Onyango, Stephen Opondo, Hilary Omondi, Dennis Onkangi and Kelvin Oluoch for the game.

Meanwhile, Gor Mahia led the qualifiers for the second round of the knock-out tournament at the weekend. But their meagre 2-0 win against plucky village minnows, Gatundu Stars – who were expected to soak in goals – was far from convincing.

Comments\Views about this article