Leopards players end strike
AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has convinced his players to end a day-long strike without giving them money.
The squad had refused to train on Tuesday claiming salary arrears for the past three months.
There were reports the players were considering forfeiting Friday’s Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League match away to Bandari in Mombasa but Shikanda has now talked them out of that move.
“The chairman told us that the club has no money and we should persevere until the end of this month at least,” a player told Nairobi News off the record.
“We’ve had fruitful talks with the players and they have agreed to train and play,” the club’s treasurer Maurice Chichi added.
In what might have been a new experience for Belgian coach Patrick Aussems, Leopards players downed their tools on Tuesday, refusing to board their brand new bus for training at Kenya Cinema pick-up point, within Nairobi’s CBD.
Aussems who guided the team to a 6-0 thrashing over Taita All-Stars in his debut match last weekend, is unlikely to have witnessed such challenges at his previous workstations namely Tanzanian moneybags Simba, South Africa’s Black Leopards, Congo’s AC Leopards, and Sudan’s Al Hilal.
Currently ranked fourth on the league standings, behind leaders Tusker, KCB and Wazito in that order, Leopards, with 19 points from nine outings will be gunning for a win over the Dockers managed by former coach Andre Casa Mbungo, a Rwandan.