AFC Leopards players on Thursday morning boycotted training demanding to be paid two months salary arrears.
Only the technical bench headed by tactician Casa Mbungo showed up for training at KTTC, Gigiri on Thursday ahead of their Kenyan Premier League match away to Sony Sugar on Saturday in Awendo.
AFC Leopard Chairman Dan Shikanda told Nation Sport that they owe the players and technical bench two months salary arrears and the club is looking for means of saving the situation.
“We shall pay our players but we still don’t have money. The situation has been tough because we don’t have sponsor and it is unfortunate some of them didn’t show up for training,” said Shikanda.
One of the players who sought anonymity revealed that they he didn’t show up for the training session since he is stressed and has to look for other ways of getting money.
“I can’t pay my bill because I don’t have cash. I understand the situation at the club and I can’t blame the management for all these. At least they should struggle and give us something small to ease the situation,” he said.
In April last year, AFC Leopards signed a three-year deal worth Sh156.4 million with SportPesa, which has since exited the Kenyan market after being at loggerheads with the government over taxation.
The exit of the betting firm has caused a lot of financial instability on the league and local clubs with league champions Gor Mahia also failing to pay salaries for the same duration as Ingwe.
Sources also revealed to Nation Sport that some of the players signed recently are bitter after the club failed to pay them there sign on fees fully.
According to the minutes of the club’s National Executive Meeting on October 1 seen by Nation Sport, the 13 time league champions have a wage bill of about Sh4.5 million a month which translates to arrears of about Sh9 million.
They have also not paid a local hotel in Kakamega Sh800,000 for services rendered when the team had matches in Western Kenya.
Ingwe management has also not paid allowances amounting to Sh350,000.
