The Kenya Premier League (KPL) 2018 season kicked
off two weeks ago yet the scary issue of financial struggles hangs over the
clubs after SuperSport and SportPesa withdrew their lucrative sponsorships.
SportPesa, the leading gaming company in Kenya
terminated its sponsorship on January 1, three years after taking over from
East African Breweries, following the government’s decision to increase
taxation from 7.5 to 35 percent on gambling revenues.
The move spells dark days ahead for the local league
and Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, whom it also sponsored.
The millions granted to the clubs enabled them to
competitively pay their players and technical benches besides catering for all
the financial logistics such as travelling for away matches and securing
insurance services.
It will be challenging for the league to run without
the SportPesa support unless another sponsor comes on board, a move that seems
unlikely for now, a week to the start of the league.
The lucrative sponsorships enabled clubs to acquire players
from outside the country, with KPL defending champions, Gor Mahia notably
benefitting from their Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda imports to dominate the
league since 2013.
Salaries and allowances for the players and
technical benches is about to become KPL’s thorny issue, especially to
self-supporting clubs unless something happens sooner than later.
AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia will be strained further
because of continental assignments and unless the government or a new sponsor
comes on board, honoring the expensive Confederations of African Football (CAF)
matches in the Confederations Cup and Champions League will take a financial
toll on them.
South African broadcaster, SuperSport who aired KPL
matches live for the last ten years terminated the deal in April last year,
following a court ruling that declared that KPL was not the bonafide body
mandated to run the local league, handing over the reins to Football Kenya
Federation (FKF).
The league matches will continue to be played in the
‘dark’, where potential clubs across Africa and the world will no longer spot
local talents, making it difficult to market local players beyond the region.
SuperSport stopped its financial grants to local
clubs that came with the broadcasting rights and this further hits hard on the
pockets already struggling to breathe after SportPesa exited.
The gains that Kenyan soccer had made courtesy of
SuperSport and SportPesa will be lost and local football may find itself back
in the early 2000s when it was a chaotic, shameful and shambolic affair
punctuated by non-payment of player salaries, hooliganism and clubs unable to
honour matches due to financial strains.
Government should call SportPesa to the table,
because the financial effects will be harsh on local soccer, with trickle down
effects down to the families that depended on the money.
KPL and FKF should engage in dialogue, resolve the
thorny supremacy battle and ultimately convince SuperSport to re-consider its
decision.
The absence of SportPesa and SuperSport will force
clubs to walk with the beggar’s bowl or risk players going hungry ahead of
crunch ties.
Local footballers may soon lose their smiles!
Kenyan soccer does not need these disruptions, not
now when local football shows promising signs and the nation once again, dreams
of seeing Harambee Stars back in the African Cup of Nations and ultimately the
2020 World Cup in Qatar.
The ball is in FKF’s, KPL’s and government’s court
to do the best and bring back SuperSport and SportPesa, two of the greatest
things that happened in Kenyan soccer in a long time.
Kenyan soccer is the ultimate loser!
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