AFC Leopards players vow not to honour Tusker match
The highly anticipated Kenyan Premier League match pitting AFC Leopards and Tusker FC slated for this Saturday is in doubt.
AFC players have apparently not trained this week and have vowed not to honour the match until the club’s management settles their unpaid salaries.
“Why would we be going for the match and we haven’t trained for the whole week? We did that against Thika and we ended up embarrassing ourselves by playing a pathetic game and losing at the backyard of our sponsors where we rarely lose.
“This time we cannot go for the match. We have agreed as a team and personally I will not present myself for the match,” one of the players told Nairobi News.
NOT PAID SINCE JANUARY
The players have not been paid salaries from January and, after their sponsors Mumias Sugar asked to pull away for three months as they seek to stabilize their financial status, the players see no bright future ahead.
“The chairman always comes to tell us the same thing over and over again. I think he has a script that he has closely rehearsed. Despite all that we are being lied to there is nothing forthcoming.
“They are telling us there will be a fundraiser in June, should we stay without salaries up to June surely?” he posed
Contacted for comment, AFC Leopards deputy Organizing Secretary Asava Kadima refuted that players are planning a boycott.
But he admitted they are talking to KPL to postpone the match.
“I am not aware that the players are planning to boycott the match. However, we are talking to KPL to see to it that we have the match postponed for the interest of football in teh country.
“We need to play in a calmer and better environment and at the moment that is not available. They rejected our plea the first time, but we are still engaging them to see if we can have the match moved to a later date when we have our issues sorted,” Kadima added.