Opinion: SportPesa/KPL partnership positive but questions need to be answered

by
Collins Okinyo
August 7, 2015

By James Goro Oronge,

We welcome the sponsorship by Sports Pesa to the Kenya premier league. However, a lot of questions need to be answered.

The first question is who will benefit in the sponsorship. Will the Kenyan player benefit handsomely or the officials?

Sports Pesa needs to be specific on how the players are going to benefit in this deal for the last sponsorships were not clear on this.

Most sponsorship in Kenyan Football ends up in the pockets of officials and it is a high time that sponsors of the premier league specify what the player will get by participating in this league.

Secondly what are the main objectives of this sponsorship? What positive change is this sponsorship going to bring to Kenya Football? This should be stated clearly and the objectives must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound (SMART) and lastly, i improve it further by making it SMART-A with the extra A standing for Agreeable.

These sponsorships MUST be agreed upon not imposed on Clubs. Stake holder participation is very important as per the New Kenyan Constitution which is Supreme to any other Constitution.

Thirdly is what are the Legalities? Is there a binding contract? These binding contracts are meant to be shared with stakeholders so that in case of any breach, Legal action should be taken immediately.

Fourthly, Sport Pesa being a Gambling/ Betting Institution, will this influence the outcome of the games? In straight terms will this encourage match fixing? If it will then we should be very careful before endorsing this sponsorship for this can bring the game into disrepute.

Remember Juventus and the Cricket scandal that rocked the world of sport over match fixing?

Lastly, i would like the FKF to do an Evaluation on the success and failures of the last sponsorship and make it public showing clearly how players benefited directly and what improvements this new deal will bring to Kenya Football.

Always remember that we should always be player centric for anything we do related to sponsorships must put full focus on the player first for this will enhance performance of our boys.

The writer is Kenyan football Legend.

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Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com