The Kenyan game is down on its knees and bleeding badly

So the new Kenyan Premier League season has just begun. The last season was crowded and hard for the players. Well, it was understandable since we were working to change the league calendar to conform to the international programme.

All went well and now we are in conventionality. The change was to our own advantage and we need not belabour the fact with a lot of talk.

This time round there was no fanfare at all. The league just started with a whimper, lame and rather scared atmosphere. There is a silent whisper doing rounds and it sounds like money, money.

The KPL has not yet attracted a title sponsor or if they have they have not seen fit to tell us. The fallout between the betting companies and the tax officials has taken its toll.

We need not dwell into the issue since it is in the courts of law but we must admit that it is a killer blow.

The dispute is tangled like twine and its effects are really felt within the sporting fraternity.

We know not if the government is seeking taxes or just enforcing some moral authority, but the whole thing is self-defeatist.

We want every Kenyan to pay taxes and if there are some moneyed entities that do not wish to do the same we must be concerned.

We pay our taxes and we do not have even the luxury to go pay it; it is deducted upfront and it is painful and understandable.

We cannot develop this country by shirking such a responsibility. We must pay it and so must the betting companies.

In the English Premier League, 10 shirt sponsors are betting companies and they somehow have no problem with it. We do not know what tax regime is placed on those companies and how they define the term “winnings” All we know is that they are functioning properly within the confines of the law of that land.

In our context, the same companies are shunned and if the issue of taxes are approached with brawn and muscles when we should have had smooth conversation and worked things out, then the outcome is here for all to see.

Those companies are now out of sport and they are not functioning. No taxes thus come from them and as such it is a trying time. The corporate world in Kenya does not seem interested in football or any other sport in this country and the government too pays a lot of lip service to this industry.

Talent is withering; plucked before it grows! This shall be a season of distress for the footballing fraternity and we are sure there are teams that shall not be able to honour away matches.

It is scary to say the least. Teams that depended on sponsorship of the betting companies are desperately looking into a desert for help and the annual Everton excursions into east Africa must stop forthwith.

We are afraid. We have the right to be afraid of this season.

Let the Kenya Revenue Authority and these gaming people come to a conclusion as soon as possible for sports to survive in this country.

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