Bob Munro of Mathare united, Ambrose Rachier of Gor, and Ken Ochieng of Zoo FC are dishonest and a threat to the growth of Kenyan soccer.

Opinion by Tony Waswa.

The recent spat between Gor chairman Ambrose Rachier and his Sg Mr. Ochola only points out the greed that has sunk its roots so deep to the detriment of the growth of soccer in our country.

During the first term of Nick Mwendwa as the president of fkf, the Jack Oguda led Kpl under which Mr Rachier served as chairman did little to improve the club’s fortunes despite the Kpl teams under Rachier chairmanship having the TV rights. The teams had the tv rights but due to the greed and self-centeredness of the then leadership, no club benefitted from the rights. We all saw Ktn air matches freely with clubs pocketing nothing.

It pains soccer lovers when clubs like Sony sugar folded not because they were tired of playing the game but simply because they could not raise money to honor a match. I vividly recall the day Sony sugar could not honor a match at their own stadiums which marked the beginning of the end of the sugeabelt based team. It did not take long before Chemilil and Muhoroni followed suit with the two big clubs AFC leopards and Gor Mahia surviving on with a begging bowl. Sad! Sad! sad!.

 FKF SECURES BROADCAST DEAL WITH STAR TIMES.

In October, Fkf secured a partnership with Chinese-owned pay-TV channel Star times.

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The deal which has enabled clubs in the top tier pocket at least 8million in broadcast rights was good news for the local soccer considering that last season, the clubs earned zero revenue despite their matches being beamed live on KTN tv.

The deal which was mooted by the Fkf president and unanimously endorsed by all the 18 Kpl chairmen was celebrated across the country by soccer lovers. Many argued that despite the amount of money offered to be relatively small, but it was a step in the right direction. All the club chairmen too welcomed the move and none raised objection at the formative stages.

Dishonesty by some club leaders.

Many people associate a chameleon with the habit of changing colors(Master of environmental adoption). Well the same can now be said of both Munro(Mathare Utd), Rachier (Gor Mahia), and Ken Ochieng(zoo Kericho FC)

Whereas all the clubs signed and approved the Betking deal in September and even received money for it. The clubs did not have a problem while they were directors in the interim committee.

 They thought they would continue to be directors and now have a problem after they were removed as directors a move that caught them flat-footed.

 Fkf in its administrative duty as empowered by the constitution wrote a letter to the named chairmen dated  November 24 but they refused to sign knowing that the league has obligations. On November 29, 2020, a reminder was done to them and they refused to sign once again.

Their refusal necessitated the postponement of their day one matches to match game two.

So far the league is entering its third week and the organizers cannot keep on postponing their matches lest the sponsors i.e. Betking will not take the league with the seriousness it deserves.

The defiance by the above teams makes it untenable for other teams that have complied with the broadcast rights deal to face them in a league match. It is at the backdrop of all these that the league organizers have little options but to suspend the aforementioned teams and rightfully so.

For the first time, the clubs are going to earn Sh.10m each. This is the first time the clubs are getting such kind of money emanating from a process midwife by the Fkf leadership.

 -So far Sh.33million has been disbursed to the clubs before the season started.

The two deals are intertwined and one cannot work without the other.

The federation is likely to lose millions of shillings should any of the teams in the 18 clubs top tier league default on the contractual obligation. Rather than lose huge sums of money in fines, it would be better to offload the offending teams than incur millions of shillings in fines.