Leopards lawyer to pursue Wanyama’s compensation

Victor Wanyama playing for Southampton.

By GILBERT WANDERA

AFC Leopards insist they will pursue claims for compensation over midfielder Victor Wanyama’s move to English side Southampton.

The club’s acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard Ekhalie said they have asked their lawyers to pursue the matter two weeks after the club was left out of the Sh80 million solidarity fees.

Ekhalie, speaking during a strategic meeting on Saturday to map out the club’s plans for the next five years, said they are not giving up on the matter and expect a windfall from the Wanyama deal.

“As one way of raising funds for the club, we will continue to pursue every compensation due to us on player transfers and Wanyama’s is one of them.

“We also want to be paid on the move of David ‘Cheche’ Ochieng, who was our player before moving to Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Apart from Leopards, another club that was left out of the Wanyama compensation are Mathare United.

According to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) only three local sides Country Bus, JMJ Academy and Nairobi City Stars deserve to get anything from the Wanyama deal.

The federation two weeks ago sent the player’s passport to the English Football Association in a bid to determine which clubs ought to be paid the money and for which periods they had the player in their ranks.

The passport indicates that Wanyama, who was born in 1991, played for Country Bus from 2003 to 2004 as an amateur making the club eligible to receive payments for two  years.

After leaving Country Bus, the passport shows that Wanyama moved to JMJ Academy playing from 2005 to 2006 before joining Nairobi City Stars where he began his professional career and stayed there for two seasons in 2007 and 2008.

Wanyama moved on to Belgian side Germinal Beerschot in 2009 staying at the club for two years before moving to Celtic in Scotland for another two years. He then made his record move to Southampton in a Sh1.6 billion move in August.

In claiming solidarity fees on the player, Mathare United showed documents proving that Wanyama featured for various sides in the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) teams between 2001 and 2006.

Fifa regulations permit clubs to have a five per cent solidarity fees from the transfer of players below 23 years whenever they change clubs.