7s players on strike as they boycott launch of their new kit by sportpesa

SPORTS NEWS - SPORTPESA OFFICIAL SHIRT SPONSOR OF KENYA SEVENS NATIONAL TEAM Kevin Wambua (left) Kenya 7's Women's Head coach, KRU Chairman Richard Omwela(Second left) SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri (Second Right) and Innocent Simiyu (right) Kenya 7's Mens head coach when The Kenya Rugby Union unveiled sports betting firm SportPesa as official shirt sponsor of the Kenya Sevens national team. PHOTO:WILBERFORCE OKWIRI

Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) is at crossroads with players over unpaid bonuses.

A crisis that now could see Kenya being kicked out of World Rugby Sevens Circuit should the nation fail to assemble a team in time for Dubai Sevens next weekend.

Players who form part of the current National Rugby Sevens team have sworn that unless the dispute over last season’s unpaid bonuses is resolved, they will not train.

The players are also threatening not to appear in next weekend’s Dubai leg of HSBC World Rugby Sevens, FeverPitch can reveal.

For the last two weeks, KRU has been engaged in talks with the players over unpaid bonuses.

The Union had summoned all rugby players who participated in the 2015/16 season plus the former technical bench. The closed door deliberations were between players’ representatives — Captain Andrew Amonde, Oscar Ayodi and Legendary Collins Injera against an adhoc - KRU committee chaired by Vice Chairman, Thomas Opiyo popularly known as Tano.

While Tano led committee’s offer was reported to have guaranteed a one-off lump-sum payment of Sh 3 million by the Union, players’ representative openly rejected the deal forcing Tano and team to retreat.

“Players are united in one common resolve that unless we are paid in full, not even the young players will board any plane to Dubai or any other country for that matter,” said a senior representative of the players who did not wish to be named.

To make good their threat, all Kenya Sevens players yesterday refused to turn up at Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi where KRU and the country’s leading sports betting firm, SportPesa was unveiling 2016/17 new team kit. Unlike previous events where Captain Andrew Amonde has always led the team at major corporate functions marked with pomp and colour, only female Kenya Sevens team showed up.

KRU Chairman, Richard Omwela while carefully trying to downplay the impasse sought to reassure Kenyans that the talks were still on going and that the Union was keen at finding an amicable solution soonest.

“This is an internal matter, I would not go into details because any conclusions that we derive from on going discussions is bound to prejudice the negotiations,” said Omwela.

Whereas coach Innocent Simiyu remains hopeful that the team preparations will be on course, time could be moving too fast for him to either pick an alternative squad or wait for disaster to strike.

Omwela further explained that at present, the Union does not have the money to pay to offset the players’ demands but there was hope with the coming of new Kit sponsor SportPesa.

“On what we have offered and what their expectations are, that is something that is still under negotiations and I do not want to get into it because we are today unveiling a new deal that would see the players reap more from their success,” added Omwela.

SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri while announcing the bonus scheme said that the partnership would see all national teams within KRU benefit and that there was no exclusive value tied to the Sevens kit.