How SportPesa’s Withdrawal is Already Impacting KPL Clubs

 

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Last week, giant betting firm SportPesa announced that they have closed their operation in the country and in the process fired over 400 staff members. The move ended all hopes Kenyan football clubs had on the company reinstating their lucrative sponsorship to the Kenya Premier League.

Following a tax row with the government that ended in the betting firm’s operation license being canceled, Sportpesa canceled all sponsorships it had with various sporting entities in Kenya including the Kenya Premier League and the two biggest clubs in the country Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards.

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Only five games into the new season, Sportpesa’s withdrawal effects re already being felt by various Kenya Premier League clubs. The hardest hit by this appears to be Sony Sugar.

The Sugar millers were forced to give a walkoer to AFC Leopards on matchday five last weekend after failing to raise enough funds to honor the fixture. A Kenyan top-flight club failing to honor a home fixture! Such is the mess that has been left behind, and the government will obviously not bother.

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Sony Sugar’s troubles aside, their opponents for the match AFC Leopards players had gone on striker days prior to the match having gone for months without their salaries and bonuses. The second most successful team in the land can barely afford to pay their players!

Gor Mahia, on the other hand, had to be bailed out after they failed to gather enough funds to honor their second leg match against USM Alger in the CAF Champions League qualifiers last month.

The season is still in its infancy stages so we can expect more of these cases as it wears on. Will the government do anything about this? Your guess is as good as ours…

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