When in 2004, Premier
league clubs, fed up with the pathetic state of the national football league,
joined up to form the Kenya Premier League (KPL), now Tusker Premier League,
due to sponsorship from the giant beer manufgacturer, few saw the unprecedented
success that this noble idea would churn, a decade plus, later! Before KPL came
into existence, courtesy of the 16 founding clubs, under the tutelage of
current CEO and former Mathare United, captain, Jack Oguda, the story of the
then KFF- league was at best dismal. Clubs could barely pay their players, matches
went unplayed due to lack of funds and if they did, some players could spend
the night on cold chairs in pubs till morning, simply because of financial
constrains! Perhaps, Coast Stars and Shabana Fc epitomized this as they went on
to become moribund. Un-honored matches, unpaid players and barely surviving
clubs were the norm, due to the financial crunch that most of these clubs
faced. Shabana have come back from football oblivion but Coast Stars simply
could not stage a comeback.
The gains that KPL
managed to bring to Kenyan football can never be down-played. The national
league has gone strides, matches are honored and all players get their dues.
Sponsors came in to support the league; SuperSport has ploughed in huge sums of
money to the clubs, and at season-end, the best performers are rewarded immensely
and financially, besides getting the priceless recognition. The league now
attracts professional footballers from across the continent! And to cap it all,
the league is beamed live to the entire globe and our football talent is
showcased to the entire world! Regional Beer manufacturer, East Africa Brewers
Limited (EABL), came on board to sponsor the league, on August 21, 2012, to a
whopping Ksh 170 million; the most lucrative deal in the history of Kenyan
football!! Then on October, 18 2012, global giant sports kitting company, PUMA,
signed a Ksh 10million-deal, and became the official ball supplier for the
clubs! Rival sporting kit manufacturer, UMBRO, are the official referee kit
supplier too. All these giant gains and goodies have been courtesy of the
friendly environment that KPL has demonstrated.
Courtesy of the
sobriety and organization that KPL has brought to the local action, sponsors
have been lured in and local football is slowly but surely transforming into a
lucrative career. Clubs like AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia, Sofapaka et Tusker Fc proudly
have shirt sponsors! There is professionalism in the local league and the
future is promising!
However, if recent
brickbats and feuds from Football Kenya Federation (FKF) are anything to go by,
then lovers of local football should be worried. The Sammy Nyamweya-led
federation has come up with its demands that threaten local football, and at
worst, heightening the possibility of having two parallel leagues, next year.
It has demanded that the league be renamed FKF Premier League (FKFPL) and that
all committees and judicial bodies operating under KPL to cease being in
existence. And maybe the big bone that triggered all this; the dispute on how
many teams should play in the league in the 2015 season, with FKF insisting on
18 while KPL standing on the 16 that it have traditionally played since its
inception in 2004. Perhaps FKF should know better that finances from the
sponsors and professionalism of the league have been key factors in having a
16-team league.
Now, with all due
respect to FKF, football fans have a reason of developing cold feet due to
these demands. There is trouble and these ugly feuds might undo all the gains
that KPL has made down the years. FKF’s motivation for all these must disturb
all football lovers who have seen the local league recover from near death in
early 2000, to the current achievements that it has achieved. Being the FIFA representatives
in the country, the federation has simply been unable to lift Harambee Stars,
the national junior teams and Harambee Starlets to the rightful heights of
competing against the continent’s best. Preparations for these teams prior to
any continental assignments have been mediocre, worthy friendly matches are not
put in place for Harambee Stars during the FIFA-recognized international
friendlies window, the second-tier Nationwide League has never attracted
sponsors who can bank-roll it. In all fairness and fair comments, we all should
accept that SuperSport and EABL came in to bank-roll the Premier league due to
the sobriety and proper organization that KPL demonstrated something that FKF
cannot entirely be commended for with regard to the Nationwide League and the
Harambee Stars.
For some of us who
followed the local league from the days when clubs could neither honor matches,
nor meet their players’ financial needs, we can only ill-afford to jeopardize
the sponsors’ financial support, in the form of the brewing fights and
politics. From days when the local league was chaotic and organization was
almost alien, then we appreciate the unprecedented gains that KPL has made.
From the endless politics and administration feuds that describe FKF, it will
be sterile imagination to imagine that the premier league would have come this
far, under FKF! KPL deserves all credit for the great work that it has done in
transforming the Kenyan premier League, and should be given all necessary
support to go on with this great work. Did I mention that audited reports from
KPL’s expenditure are available to the public to scrutinize? Can the same be
said of FKF? I do not think so! Somebody needs to tell FKF that their demands,
whose motives and reasons are unknown, are the perfect recipe to ruining our
premier league. Players, Clubs and fans should all be worried, unless something
stops FKF from executing them! Politics can ruin the sobriety of our rising
premier league, just as they have brought Harambee Stars to the lowest ebb
ever!
President Kenyatta,
Sports Cabinet Secretary, Hassan Wario and his predecessor in that docket, Paul
Otuoma, have all called on FKF to re-think and stop this fall-out and
disruption to the local league. Something must be done, and correctly so, the
curse of fights and politics into our beautiful game, chase away current and
potentially future sponsors, and worst of it all, put us on a collision-course with
Sepp Blatter and his men, in Zurich, Switzerland!
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