WHO OWNS KPL?FKF to tell Sports Tribunal only four clubs own top-tier football league

Mathare United players celebrates their second goal against Bandari during their KPL match at Nyayo National Stadium on Saturday 22/10/16. Mathare won 3-1.PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

Ownership of the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) will come under scrutiny this week as the country’s football governing body files its response to a suit barring it from discussing the expansion of the top-tier league.

KPL got an injunction at the Sports Tribunal barring Football Kenya Federation (FKF) from discussing the expansion of the top league from 16 to 18 teams during last month’s general meeting.

With the matter coming up on Tuesday, Feverpitch has learnt that unlike previously assumed, not all the 16 clubs in the KPL are registered as shareholders with the Registrar of Companies.

The company has only four listed directors, who are also shareholders, raising concern about the legality of multi-million shilling contracts it has entered into on behalf of the other 13 clubs.

According to a search at the Registrar of Companies last Friday, the company’s four directors are Xxcel Africa, which also owns Mathare United, AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia and the defunct Sher Agencies.

What is worrying is that Sher Agencies is still listed as a director of the company months after the parent company wound up and years after the club was relegated from the league.

According to confirmation from Joseph Sakoi for the Registrar of Companies, each of the four listed directors owns one share each.

“According to the records relating to the above company held by the registry as at November 4, 2016, the names of directors/shareholders of the above company with their particulars are as follows: Xxcel Africa Limited (Mathare United FC), AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia Football Club and Sher Agencies Ltd, who have one share each.

“The nominal share capital of the company is Sh100,000 divided into 1,000 ordinary shares of Sh100 each,” responded Sakoi to inquiries about the ownership of KPL.

 

FOUR DIRECTORS

The signatures of the four directors are appended to the memorandum of association filed at the Registrar of Companies, with current Mathare United chairman Bob Munro signing on behalf of Xxcel Africa.

Former AFC Leopards chairman Voltaire Kegode signed on behalf of the club while Fred Odera, a former Gor Mahia secretary general, signed on their behalf.

Vitalis Osodo, a former secretary general of Sher Agencies, signed for the club.

The ownership of the company that runs the country’s top-tier league was first questioned in 2009 by Muoko and Company Advocates, then acting for the then Kenya Football Federation North Coast branch.

The law firm had written to the Registrar of Companies wanting to know the shareholders and respective shareholding as well as the directors of the KPL.

In a reply dated December 3, 2009, JO Adera acting for the registrar wrote: “According to our records as at December 3, 2009, the shareholders and directors of the company are as follows - Xxel Africa Limited, AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia and Sher Agencies Limited.

“The above shareholders hold one share each of Sh100 in the capital of the company.

“This has been the position since the registration of the company on October 31, 2003, and no changes in either directorship or shareholding have been made.”

When contacted, Mathare United chairman Bob Munro insisted that all the 16 KPL clubs were shareholders of the company, with their chairmen as directors.

“All the 16 clubs are shareholders of the KPL and those who get relegated surrender their shareholding to those that are promoted. We file our returns annually to reflect the same,” he said.