The day Kenya were on brink of CAF ban

Malawians say that he who thinks he is leading and has no one following him, is only taking a walk.

When Football Kenya Federation and StarTimes penned a Sh450m deal that granted the Chinese PayTV channel exclusive rights to all national football teams for the next five years, it marked the beginning of what has now become a national concern.

In their agreement, the Chinese media house acquired exclusive broadcast rights to all friendly matches involving Harambee Stars, the national women’s football team and the youth teams during the period.

There were clinks  of champagne flutes here and sweet aroma of nyama choma there. It was time to celebrate FKF’s new engagement. The sponsorship deal had been long overdue anyway.

But just as the football honchos were done with celebrations, in came what has now become a nasty battle over the television rights of Harambee Stars matches.

South African broadcasters SuperSport International insisted they were the rightful broadcast right holders of yesterday’s CHAN preliminary round qualifier between Harambee Stars and Walia Ibex of Ethiopia.

In unprecedented scenes on Friday evening, FKF prevented SuperSport from accessing Nyayo Stadium, the match venue. When the firm’s 17-camera Outside Broadcasting van stopped at Nyayo, the 30-man crew was in shock.

At this moment, FKF were adamant that the match would be televised by StarTimes. Not even numerous pleas would make the federation reconsider their stand. The officials had decided and it was final. Even the advertising boards were not branded with SuperSport which has been synonymous with local football.

It took the intervention of African Football Confederation (CAF) to bring matters to normalcy. In a letter to Michael Esakwa, the FKF Chief Executive Officer, the continental body reminded the federation to respect their commercial and media rights, which held by SportFive.

“In case of non-compliance to Caf commitments by the national association or incase of piracy of the TV signal, the concerned team shall be excluded from the competition and will be suspended for the next edition, notwithstanding any other sanction that may be imposed to the federation to which the team belongs,” Caf’s Marketing and TV Director, Amr Shaheen wrote.