Local league faces bleak future

In less than 10 days, the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) is scheduled to kick off with the future looking bleak. This is after league sponsors SportPesa announced they are cancelling all their sponsorships following a disagreement with the government over taxation. The announcement has left many clubs worried about their viability.

Already, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, the country’s biggest clubs, are already feeling the pinch of the pull-out. But the blame for this worrisome situation should go to football administrators at clubs and Football Kenya Federation, who are yet to start living in the modern world of sports marketing and hence do not have the wherewithal to get more sponsors on board, even when it is crystal clear that players and football cannot grow through hype and rhetoric.