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National football team Harambee Stars flew to Morocco yesterday on a chartered flight to play the Hawks of Mali in a 2022 Fifa World Cup Group ‘E’ qualifier on Thursday.

The match will be played under floodlights at Stade Adrar in Agadir, some 541 kilometers from Moroccan capital Rabat, on Thursday.

The match is being played in Morocco because there is no stadium that meets world football governing body, Fifa, standards in Mali.

All the three big arenas in Mali including Modibo Keita, Centre Salif Keita and Bamako Municipal do not meet the required standards set by Fifa, hence the development.

Kenya’s head Coach Engine Firat whittled down the 34 players he had summoned to camp to 25 as they left Nairobi.

Qatar-based Micheal Olunga was part of the traveling party that left Nairobi with the rest of his colleagues expected to link up with the team from their respective bases in Europe.

Some of the professionals include Richard Odada (Red Star Belgrade, Serbia), David Odhiambi (Napsa, Zambia), Ian Otieno (Zesco, Zambia), Farouk Shikalo (KMC, Tanzania), Joash Onyangoi (Simba, Tanzania) and Duke Abuya (Nkana, Zambia).

Among those dropped by Firat were Ovella Ochieng’ of South African Club Marumo Gallants, Ulinzi Stars goalkeeper James Saruni and striker Masoud Juma who plies his trade with Difaa Hassani El Jadidi in Morocco. Masoud who had become a regular in the team, was this time not even considered in the provisional team.

The omission of Saruni might surprise many considering that he was named 2020 Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League Glove man Of The Year during the league’s gala last month.

Likewise, the exclusion of Masoud might also send tongues wagging and especially given that he could have been an asset having acclimatized to the conditions in Morocco ever since he joined El Jadidi from Algerian club JS Kabylie.

The development now leaves Firat with the options of fielding Olunga, Henry Meja and Eric Kapaito in the striking department.

Firat has also included four natural left full-back players in the squad including Eric “Marcelo” Ouma, Bolton Omwenga, David Ambulu and Aboud Omar, meaning that he may opt to use some as makeshift wingers during the crucial back-to-back qualifiers.

Harambee Stars will host the reverse fixture on October 10 at Nyayo National Stadium.

This will be the second meeting between Mali and Kenya in a space of sixteen years after the first in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia. Kenya lost 3-1 to Mali.

In related development, two other teams in Group “E” including Rwanda’s Amavubi and Uganda Cranes will be meeting the same day at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.