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Nick Mwendwa: I will talk to SuperSport to come back


Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa has said he will initiate talks aimed at convincing SuperSport to rescind Friday’s decision to pull the plug on a lucrative broadcast rights deal with the SportPesa Premier League.

Speaking to Nairobi News, Mwendwa also absolved himself from blame over the latest saga which led to SuperSport switching off live broadcast on an estimated 100 top flight league matches on Friday.

In arriving at the decision, the South African based TV’s legal advisor Phillip Seleke explained the move had been forced upon them following realisation that the Kenyan Premier League misrepresented themselves during the contract negotiations.

This, Seleke said, had been confirmed in a recent ruling by the Sports and Disputes Tribunal following a stand off between the Kenyan Premier League and Football Kenya Federation.

MASSIVE LOSSES

While reacting to the news, Mwendwa hinted at resurrecting the botched Sh300 million annual deal, initially set to lapse in 2021.

“SuperSport has no issue with 18 teams. KPL lied to them that they own the rights to the league which they don’t. I will be meeting all the affected clubs early next week and we will among other issues discuss on how to recover the situation,” said Mwendwa.

Meanwhile, even as the local football fraternity comes to terms with the expected massive losses expected after SuperSport’s withdrawal, KPL and FKF officials are seemingly still in the mood for another round of fights. This after KPL released a statement late on Friday blaming Mwendwa over the latest development.

“KPL understands and sympathizes with SuperSport on that issue and even shares their concern. KPL has previously emphasized in its public statement and court petitions that since the FKF elections in February 2016, the biggest problem and threat to stability in Kenyan football has been the repeated failures of the new FKF officials to respect the rule of law and previous agreements and, in particular, the 2015-2019 FKF-KPL Agreement signed on September 24, 2015,” the statement reads in part.