Ambitious Oserian FC eyeing SportPesa Premier League return

Oserian FC football Head Coach Abel Ayuko has set a top four National Super League (NSL) finish and ultimately a promotion to the SportPesa Premier League (SPL) as he seeks a major revival of the club that won top flight league titles over a decade ago.

Popularly known as the Flowermen, the club boasts a rich history having dominated Kenyan football in the early 2000s, a stature that Ayuko says he is intent on reclaiming.

“As the coach my main target is to ensure we are back in the Premier League. The NSL is really tough but we are working very hard to earn our promotion. The club’s historical path is filled with success stories and the boys are aware of exactly what that necessitates,” he said.

Under current Bandari FC Coach Twahir Muhiddin in 2000, Oserian (the then Oserian Fastac) came close to clinching the league title, falling only two points behind eventual winners Tusker FC. However, the Naivasha-based club went on to win claim the title in 2001 and later in 2002.

Oserian’s fall from glory started the following year as sponsorship issues started draining their financial muscle. As the club ran dry of finances, the situation condemned them to playing in the low-tier league until 2011 when they won the NSL, earning an inevitable promotion back to top flight football.

There was no fairy tale end to the story as 2011 NSL champions were relegated back to the NSL after finishing at position 15 in 2012.

Oserian has since been a regular average performer at the NSL, with top players walking out of the club but Ayuko now says he has drawn up a plan to ensure they steadily rise up again and into the SPL.

“We have talked to three, four top players and are on the verge of agreeing to personal terms. I am not at liberty of revealing their identities but I can tell you that on top of that nurturing a core team made up of 13 high school graduates whom we’ve already recruited that,” he revealed saying that the move is aimed at securing the team’s future following a deja vu mass exodus of players last year.

Ayuko who is also a former Oserian player has cited the exit of a host of first team players and former Head Coach Nicholas Muyoti (who terminated his contract to take up an assistant coaching role at AFC Leopards) as the reason behind their low key start to the season, saying the walk-out greatly destabilized the club’s momentum.

With the current world of football heavily dependent on a stable funding, Ayuko admits that it is going to be difficult muscling in between already established SPL sides, the revival is on.

Report by Paul Kimani