Nairobi, Kenya, February 25: Senior Kenyan footballers have spoken out on feud involving Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the country topflight league administrative body Kenya Premier League (KPL) calling both sides to immediately find a solution to the row.
FKF wanted to expand the top flight league in the 2015 season from current sixteen to eighteen teams but KPL with support from fourteen prominent clubs have turned down the proposal, resulting in the formation of two rival parallel leagues.
The players drawn from all 14 clubs whose owners have sworn their loyalty to KPL league told journalists that they fear that the row would prompt companies bankrolling the game to consider pulling out sponsorship.
“Once the sponsors pull out, as they are likely to, pulling out we as footballers will suffer the consequences of a problem we did not start,” Standard Digital quoted one of the players as saying.
FKF wanted to expand the top flight league in the 2015 season from current sixteen to eighteen teams but KPL with support from fourteen prominent clubs have turned down the proposal, resulting in the formation of two rival parallel leagues.
The players drawn from all 14 clubs whose owners have sworn their loyalty to KPL league told journalists that they fear that the row would prompt companies bankrolling the game to consider pulling out sponsorship.
“Once the sponsors pull out, as they are likely to, pulling out we as footballers will suffer the consequences of a problem we did not start,” Standard Digital quoted one of the players as saying.
The scenario which they said would put their jobs at risk and warned that they will call for industrial action and street demos if the two warring sides fail to hammer out a workable deal to end the dispute.
“The threat to our jobs is so high with this standoff. In the coming week, we may consider calling out on all footballers to go out on the streets to voice our concerns,” added Wilson Oburu Kenya national soccer team (Harambe Stars) and Bandori goal custodian.
However, they made it clear that that they are not taking sides into the dispute in voicing their concerns, saying both sides play complementary roles in the running and administration of the game.
Last week, Kenya national soccer team foreign based players like; Victor Wanyama (Southampton, England), Dennis Oliech (Ajjacio, France), Arnord Origi (Lillestrom, Norway) also expressed concern on the ongoing dispute between the two sides.
The two warring parties appears determined not to cede ground on the matter and they have both vowed to continue running the rival leagues and have indicated that they will release fixtures for weekend games.
Analysts have warned that the feud between the two parties has the potential to have negative bearing on the standards of the game and attract punitive sanctions from the world soccer governing body FIFA if both sides maintain their current rigid positions.
“The threat to our jobs is so high with this standoff. In the coming week, we may consider calling out on all footballers to go out on the streets to voice our concerns,” added Wilson Oburu Kenya national soccer team (Harambe Stars) and Bandori goal custodian.
However, they made it clear that that they are not taking sides into the dispute in voicing their concerns, saying both sides play complementary roles in the running and administration of the game.
Last week, Kenya national soccer team foreign based players like; Victor Wanyama (Southampton, England), Dennis Oliech (Ajjacio, France), Arnord Origi (Lillestrom, Norway) also expressed concern on the ongoing dispute between the two sides.
The two warring parties appears determined not to cede ground on the matter and they have both vowed to continue running the rival leagues and have indicated that they will release fixtures for weekend games.
Analysts have warned that the feud between the two parties has the potential to have negative bearing on the standards of the game and attract punitive sanctions from the world soccer governing body FIFA if both sides maintain their current rigid positions.
:By: Joel Chirwa
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