FKF-PL officials address the media in Nairobi on Wednesday where they gave federation boss Sam Nyamweya a 48-hour ultimatum.
NAIROBI, June 3 – Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League clubs have given Sam Nyamweya a 48-hour ultimatum to release Sh1m monthly grants failure to which they will not honour the fixtures.
The 18 clubs are yet to receive their grant for the month of May while Posta Rangers, Nairobi Stima and Nzoia Sugar only received payment for March from the Sh76m the federation says it received from their broadcast sponsorship deal with MP& Silva.
The FKF-PL Governing Council, who met in Nairobi on Wednesday, declared they have only received Sh33m with Sh10m yet to be disbursed to referees who have gone three weeks without pay.
“We summoned our president to attend our meeting today so that he can shed light regarding how some monies which were obtained for the benefit of this league has been spent.
“We entered into contract with the federation in terms that we will be receiving Sh1m a month to be able to run our league comfortably, but we have not been receiving as we had anticipated,” vice-chairman, Ken Ochieng’ stated.
“He (Nyamweya) told us by the of end business today, he will disburse the money to referees. We told the federation it will be for the best interest of everyone in the league that the money comes in as we agreed because our fear is we will not be able to conduct our business,” Ochieng’ who is also the Zoo Kericho chairman added.
Mid last month, MP&Silva wrote to FKF asking for their USD2.5m annual five-year deal to be reviewed after raising issues with some aspects of the agreement including quality of the competition and alleged forgeries of club signatures.
They added no further payments would be made until the matter is resolved with affected clubs warning the competition could cease if the cash-freeze continues.
“There was fear from our side that the sponsorship might end very soon since we heard they requested to renegotiate terms of the contract in view of the diminishing value of what they thought they bought.
“But the president has assured us he is talking to them and he will get back to us in two days time. We are not here to fight anybody our main concern is to get the sponsorship back on track,” the spokesman added.
In response, Nyamweya said they were still in discussion with MP&Silva and called on the FKF-PL Governing Council to be patient.
“They are satisfied with our explanations and they are in solidarity with us. They have given us the mandate to talk with the sponsor so that they can be retained however, they have castigated those who are distracting the process,” Nyamweya explained.
The FKF PL Governing Council also said they will agree on whom they will support in the coming elections to be held in October.
“As clubs we would like to take a stand that will be beneficial to us and whoever will become delegates we will lobby and ask them to go and vote in a way that will be of good use to us,” Ochieng’ concluded.
A representative from MP&Silva who was supposed to attend the meeting did not show up.