The SportPesa debacle should be wake up call to football clubs

Gor Mahia's Patron Raila Odinga (left) and SportPesa's CEO Captain Ronald Karauri during the announcement of the club’s sponsorship in 2016. SportPesa yesterday canceled such sponsorships. [File, Standard]

This piece is long overdue. The situation that Kenyan sport finds itself in is also long overdue. It should have happened earlier, then it could have jolted the bosses, nay, the presidents, and their legions of minions to action. But then again, it would have required them to think — and that is a problem because they are afraid of thinking.

Whatever happened on Friday should be a wakeup call to sports bodies in Kenya. It should wake them up and make look at the sports world through modern lenses. If they do that, they might just realise that they are living in the past when a single sponsor could carry a club or a federation and when there was not much need for sports marketing.

For a very long time, the people tasked with managing sports — from the Ministry to the clubs, through the federations to the playgrounds — in Kenya have been in deep sleep from which they do not want to wake up because they love their comfort zone.

And so it came to pass, that SportPesa, the betting firm that has been babying sporting bodies pulled the plug on their sponsorship because it has been “operating in an extremely challenging business environment… which has brought about immense pressure on the business necessitating a revaluation of some plans.”

To claim that Kenyan sport was jolted to its heart on Friday afternoon is an exaggeration. It is a lie. Kenyan sport, or specifically the bit that we keep saying will be affected by the cancellation of SportPesa’s sponsorship has no heart. It has no soul. It has no head. It is bankrupt socially, morally and financially. It is a shame that it even exists.

For the past 48 hours, there has been gnashing of teeth in a few boardrooms of Kenya’s sports bodies. Outside the boardrooms, there is more than just empty chatter. There is banter and meaningless arguments, counter-arguments and verbal exchanges. But no matter how loud they shout, little will be achieved unless the bosses, the presidents, the chairmen and their subjects and minions start thinking outside the paying grounds, so to write, and start looking for and signing multiple sponsorship deals.

It is not easy to understand why the officialdom of Football Kenya Federation, Kenyan Premier League and certain football clubs that have been beneficiaries of SportPesa’s largesse should complain considering that they have had a whole lifetime to put their ducks in a row.

The signs have all been there from the beginning of the year — and in July, when it became clear that betting firms will not have it easy, Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa started wailing that FKF is staring at a Sh600 million sponsorship loss and termed it “a big crisis that will affect them badly.”

“We are looking at a huge loss translating to about Sh600 million. Without the betting firms, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards clubs will have no sponsor, Harambee Stars will suffer and our shield tournament will be non-existent,” he whined.

I do not speak for SportPesa, but what was the betting firm getting from these sports entities — what were they giving in return? What value were they adding to SportPesa’s bottomline if not living off it and hoping that the situation continues till kingdom come so they can keep shouting how Kenyan football is going places, which in essence is to the dogs. And that is an insult to the dogs.

According to Gilbert Wandera and Rogers Eshitemi of Standards Sports, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, two of Kenya’s most successful clubs with 31 league titles between them, are in danger of failing to honour not only their local league matches but also their contractual obligations to players, some signed up from countries as far away as West Africa.

From left: FKF president Nick Mwendwa, CEO SportPesa Ronald Karauri, PS Ministry of Sports Peter Kaberia, Gor Mahia’s Ambrose Rachier, AFC Chairman Dan Mule and Gor Mahia vice-chairman John Pesa when SportPesa announced resumption of sponsorship of the clubs after a suspension in 2018. [File, Standard]

Last month, Ambrose Rachier, the Gor Mahia chairman only saw “doom and gloom” and added that whatever action the government takes on betting firms, “they should consider the sports industry.”

Not to be left behind in the ranting game, Dan Shikanda, the chairman of AFC Leopards chimed in: “Ingwe depends 100 percent on SportPesa funding. We simply don’t know where we go from here.”

Go to hell. All of you. Which meaningful sporting entity relies on a single sponsor in this time and age?

Mr Muganda is an Editor at The Standard