It’s not about football, it’s an economic contest

The 2014 Kenyan Premier League season closed a few weeks ago.

It was an exciting season as many will agree but it was also the season marked with a lot of confusion; interference; intermeddling and shocking boardroom decisions that left many wondering just how low we can descend.

From the time Football Kenya Federation took office, their love affair with the Kenya Premier League Company Limited limited has always been for public consumption but, in the backroom each, must have been praying for the death of the other. It has been a strange kind of romance between a full-grown, six-foot cobra and an agile mongoose.

They have dealt with each other with exaggerated civility and poisoned politeness in public. Not anymore. Before the last season, there was less interference from FKF, mainly because there was a lot of unfinished business in the house.

They were still busy with their own purge and after they got rid of the ‘undesirable’ elements elected amongst them; the next step was to try and rein in KPL Limited and subordinate that body to where it belongs.

AVOIDED COLLISION

KPL, on the other hand, has avoided a head on collision with FKF and has always taken to swallowing the bitter pill whenever the decisions on the league have been trashed by FKF.

They must have thought it shall end well but the bull was charging with added gusto.

After the 2014 Fotballer of the Year awards fiasco, FKF came up with a plan to have 18 teams in the 2005 season. It was first put on the table as if it was something that needed further discussion by all stakeholders but it soon solidified into a command and KPL was now given the directive to make that happen. It was gross.

KPL gave its word on the matter and asserted that the league shall have 16 teams. They gave a string of potent logic trying to explain just why 18 teams shall be untenable and that is where they went wrong. Since when has logic been the driving force in football management in Kenya?

The KPL CEO, Jack Oguda, forgot for a moment that FKF is a political outfit adept at trench warfare and cruel diversionary tactics. He got it all wrong and the adversary took another twist.

They demanded that all clubs register with FKF by December 15, 2014, and clubs that shall fail to do so will cease to be members of the federation and will be replaced. It was a baffling statement since all the clubs are already registered with FKF. The gist of it all was that the national football governing body is geared towards taking control of all aspects of the sport and that must include sidelining KPL.

FKF went ahead and gave promotion credentials to Kakamega Homeboyz, Nakumatt FC and Shabana FC. This popular move led to jubilation in Kakamega where Homeboyz fans marched on the road, singing their hearts out for FKF as they went to Bukhungu Stadium.

PIECE OF ADVICE

While lauding the promotion of Homeboyz to the Premier League, Nzoia United chairman, Yapets Mokua, unwittingly voiced what many could not say in public: “A piece of advice to Oguda (Jack) is that he should know that (sic) even though rules are set at the beginning of the season, there is room for making abrupt changes. “For instance, you can be engaged with a handsome husband or beautiful girl for three years only not to marry him or her at the end, that is the situation with KPL, they need to accept that things do change unplanned.”

The abrupt changes were coming in thick and fast and the room to accommodate them was being made even larger. Oguda was now expected to “Accept that things do change unplanned” (sic). Lack of planning was to be accepted without reference to sporting integrity. Mr Mokua went ahead and opined that with the expanded league, football will reach all counties at the grassroots.

The reaction was the same in the environs of those promoted teams and FKF was getting more support on their stand for the 18-team league as many voices picked on the ‘grassroots’ theme very popular with Kenyans but usually meaningless. Posta Rangers joined the support trail and even suggested that in future we should have a league where every county has a team.

n Mombasa, FKF Coast region National Executive Committee member, Mohammed Omar, was irked by the KPL’s refusal to abide by the FKF directive.

After cherry picking the FKF constitution and accusing KPL of insubordination, Omar said: “By and large, if we are to go to FKF Constitution and the Rule of Law the CEO of KPL is referring to, then it is known by all and sundry that KPL operation is unconstitutional and are hiding behind sponsors in spite of the fact that the original owners of all the rights emanating from competitions, including but not limited to Premier League, belongs deservingly to FKF.”

This observation turned the power struggle into an economic contest. It gave the true picture of what is at stake and the reason why FKF is inching slowly to take over the management of the league instead of just disbanding KPL, which has the sponsors on its side.

So they were ‘hiding behind the sponsors all the time. Omar, with a sycophantic look on his face, posed: “Isn’t it an act of insubordination? What if FKF completely withdraws its recognition on KPL?”

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

He did not bother to answer his own rhetorical questions but the point sank home. By Friday, KPL Limited was still adamant on its stand of sticking to the 16-team format after their governing council meeting. It is back to the stalemate and the gloves are now off.

Official KPL right broadcasters SuperSport’s General Manager Auka Gecheo also cast doubt on the FKF proposal of having an 18-team league format as from 2015. Mr Gecheo said the move is a breach of contract between them and the league managers KPL but passed across a better way of developing football at least by improving the second tier.

“We are not ready on our side because we have a contract with KPL which stipulates that a league has 16 teams hence adding two teams to make it 18 will be a breach of contract,” Gecheo said.

He then added that there are many logistics attached to the proposal for instance the number of matches will increase to 306 from the current 240 per season thus an increment in the broadcasting expenses which is very expensive.

The supporters of the expanded league, on the other hand, trashed Mr Gecheo’s view by saying SuperSport need not expand their broadcast and should only stick to broadcasting the same number of matches as they used to do.

The contract itself is between KPL and the broadcaster and it remains to be seen if it shall remain in force if FKF ceases to recognise KPL as Omar suggested. The matter is still hanging in the balance and those who shall suffer are the Kenyan footballers. Come what may, the future of our football is at stake but even its death cannot stop these people from their battle for supremacy.