Yobs make job of selling AFC hard

For the last three or so months, we have been treated to reports of Ingwe landing a lucrative sponsorship deal.

The names of several companies have been bandied around but so far, nothing has come to fruition.

Initially, the explanation was that whereas several blue chip companies were falling over each other to sponsor Ingwe, it was difficult to negotiate the terms of such sponsorship without a substantive office in place.

At that point, the Leopards leadership was in shambles, Kasavuli had thrown in the towel, the Secretary General George Aladwa had gone underground while the fans and even the players could not stand the sight of his assistant Asava Kadima and organising secretary Timothy Lilumbi.

That has since been sorted out with the Onyino team taking over for the next six months.

The last time I checked with people close to the new team at the helm, I was informed that while the finer details of a sponsorship deal had been worked out with some central Kenya based corporate, what was holding back the contract were some concerns on the part of the latter about our propensity to violence.

Too unfortunate that our fans, or call them hooligans for that is really what they are, unleashed violence during Ingwe’s recent match against Thika United at the Thika County stadium following a disputed goal.

Obviously the goal was scored from an offside position (only the self proclaimed prefect of referees GMT Otieno thinks otherwise) but that should not be used to justify the violent conduct of the goons masquerading as Ingwe fans.

If anything, these goons only denied our boys the chance to fight back and level scores if not win the match altogether for we had a whole 10 minutes plus time-added-on to bounce back.

True Ingwe fans ought to have known by now that it is never over until it is over. If you doubt, ask KCB.
Disrupt the match

Assuming we had chosen to disrupt the KCB match when the centre referee awarded them a penalty, would we have given Lucas Indeche a chance to show us how good he is at saving penalties? Or how good Patrick Kagogo is at taking free-kicks?

That is what the goons amongst us denied our boys when they stormed the pitch and disrupted the match against Thika United.

The consequences of their actions are that Onyino and his team must now try to conjure a very good narrative to convince our potential sponsor that hooliganism is not in our DNA.

We must learn to believe in the quality and fighting spirit of our boys. Let’s leave hooliganism to its owners – that is why they call themselves the Green Army.