SIGNS THAT A ‘HOLY’ FKF COULD BE PLANNING ANOTHER COUP AGAINST KPL

During the fight to create an expanded Kenya Premier League (KPL), I wrote a piece on the planned scheme to ‘take over’ the league by the national federation using numbers, a piece that was dismissed as a mere conspiracy theory.

[READ: https://goo.gl/NsfD1U]

I was and still remain a fierce a critique of what we adopted in an 18-team league from the one that was, a 16-team one. Remember, I had put up a radical suggestion of scaling the KPL even further down to a manageable number like fourteen, giving a myriad reasons for my proposal.

I vividly remember of how in August 2002, the PSL bought out two Premier Division licences, from Ria Stars F.C. and Free State Stars F.C. to ease fixture congestion and reduce their own costs, while Egypt with over 90 Million people reduced theirs to an 18 from a 20-team league.

I also remember adding that with little thought put into the expansion plan; “the tangible need to improve will be reduced, half-decent will do, while mediocre will suffice!”

It’s today evident that all my suggestions fell on deaf ears though, not because they were bad or unenforceable, but because they did not fit in the grand scheme of things, seizing the ‘cash cow’ from the clubs back to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF).

My suggestion was outmuscled by greed, I.doubt any logical thinking was involved.

[READ: https://goo.gl/YVpYYX]

The fight for an expanded league came with so much; egos were bruised, personal relationships dented, and opportunities lost; this fight and a subsequent court ruling on the same, led to the loss of the Supersport broadcast deal, because there was no way the South African pay TV giants would have easily terminated a contract running till 2021.

Anyway, that came and went, KPL caved in and allowed the FKF to have their way, an 18 team league it became, and FKF, by virtue of pushing for that expansion, they were required to meet the KPL halfway through a yearly remittance of Ksh. 19m to KPL, hold that thought, I will tell you what became of that too.

Sadly, the only remaining sponsor, Sportpesa also quit in the beginning of 2018, on reasons well beyond the league organisers and the federation. This left left KPL as ‘broke as a church mouse’ – At least FKF has a yearly grant from FIFA and a supplementary income from the Government of Kenya.

While the shared financial woes ought to have fostered a sense of unity to restore normalcy, the fatherly FKF has once again started showing signs of wanting to stage another coup d’etat against her own affiliates in the country’s top flight league.

Last weekend, the FKF called a meeting of all KPL Club chairmen, a gathering whose invitation I am reliably informed was honoured by eight out of 18 KPL chairmen. The open agendum on the cards, was the planned change of member association league calendars.

CAF wants all its members to submit winners of their league and cup competitions by November 2018, and a result, the 2018 KPL league is scheduled to end around the first week of October.

The second ‘secret agenda’, was the KPL financial woes, in which the FKF seems to be dancing over. FKF Is said to have asked the KPL members pressed financially by lack of a sponsor to the league, to jointly write to it, in a bid to seek their intervention.

Nick Mwendwa’s administration claims that it has a “consortium of sponsors”, who are very much ready to pump money into the KPL, but on condition that there’s; first, a clubs breakaway from its current formation, and secondly, that the KPL terminates its partnership with Laliga, an agreement that currently funds the league’s production of matches to the ‘Free-To-Air’ television stations.

I personally would only buy any of such suggestions from an FKF that by now would have already convinced that ‘consortium’ to channel a few of their millions or billions of shillings into changing the dynamics at the National Super League (NSL), and the Kenya Women Premier League (KWPL).

I would help drum up support for FKF’s take over, if no club in the NSL was struggling or giving walkovers like Nakuru All Stars and Muhoroni Youth respectively.

I would allow FKF to rejoice in KPL’s woes, if by now they had already credited their Bank Account with Ksh. 19 million, yearly contribution as promised to support an expanded league. In fact, let FKF deny the fact that they still owe the league some money from last year.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, I would only support the FKF’s suggestions on the league, if and only if, they weren’t the ones who lied to us that the Club licensing regulations wasn’t an ‘axe’ to deal with KPL Clubs seemingly opposed to their style of management, and in turn infiltrate the league organisers governing council with ‘federation-friendly’ clubs.

Today, Clubs are suffering financially, yet from Licensing Committee’s report, we were assured that only those who demonstrate proof of financial sustainability or fulfill the Financial Criteria as captured in the regulations were to be given a green light to participate in the league – We never informed of the need by KPL to further scrutinize financial capability of its new entrants, but rather to just admit as cleared.

Doesn’t each club own its commercial rights for its brokeness not to be blamed on KPL which only has their broadcast rights in one pool?

On this matter, white is not FKF as it is to rice, they should therefore stop acting ‘holy’ and play a part in funding their appetite for a bloated league, instead of looking as though they are planning a coup.

Twitter: @francisngira