Mbungo’s departure points to tough times at AFC Leopards

The festive season is upon us but I’m afraid I do not have good news, because of a severe financial challenges that have choked through the local sports scene, leaving Kenyan football on its deathbed.

Forget Harambee Stars qualification to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, and Harambee Starlets’ recent victory at the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup and take my word.

Things are thick out here. Here is why. We live in a country where close to 30,000 men and women, aged below 30, harbour ambitions of becoming a professional footballer.

But these youth have no adequate infrastructure to train.

Neither do they have ambitious and visionary leaders to help them realise their talents. The administrators we have do not seem to know that football has since graduated from a pure entertainment sport to big business.

They probably watch Stars captain Victor Wanyama, who earns Sh1 million a day in England, and believe he is just a lucky bastard. In contrast, news filtered in that AFC Leopards coach Andre Casa Mbungo had written a letter to his employer issuing a notice to quit after 15 days if his salary arrears stretching back from August of this year are not paid, and in full.

Mbungo, who highlighted his plight with the management for quite some time, is not the only one suffering. Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has equally not paid his players and technical bench for five months, with six of them including Soter Kayumba, Whyvonne Isuza, Ismailia Diarra, Tresor Ndikumana and Vincent Habamahoro either leaving or threatening to walk out.

Ingwe, by the way, could be in big trouble if any of these aggrieved parties escalate the matter to Fifa. That’s a story for another day. But this is not only a Leopards ‘problem’.

Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier also proudly admits he has not paid his players and technical bench for the past five months.

With this admission, and unless nothing changes, expect a number of players to walk out soon. Similarly, players at most clubs in the Kenyan Premier League and National Super League are struggling.

Sony Sugar is already relegated from the Kenyan Premier League owing to financial troubles and Chemelil Sugar could as well soon follow. In fact, all KPL teams, save for Bandari, Tusker, Wazito, and possibly Kakamega Homeboyz are struggling to stay afloat.

Even Kariobangi Sharks, a club owned by Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa, is struggling to stay afloat, he is equally to blame for SuperSport’s exit on the Kenyan football market in 2017. The same is the situation in the second-tier National Super League. I cannot imagine what will happen to all these players when they also give up their lifetime ambition and seek other means of survival.

These struggles mirror the current economic situation in the country. It is time all football stakeholders came together to salvage the little that is left of Kenyan football.