KPL to own and run Premier League
April 9 - At the KPL meeting today a majority of the top clubs in the Premier League welcom-ed the recent media statement by the KFF Chairman that the 2005-06 Premier League will be run by their company.
The clubs praised the KFF announcement as a refreshing and necessary break with the past and especially the last two years when previous KFF officials made and repeatedly broke eight agreements with their own member clubs on the management of the Premier League.
The clubs especially noted that the meeting on December 9, 2004 chaired by Sports Minister Ochillo Ayacko with key members of the KFF Normalisation Committee and top FIFA officials even adopted a specific Article in the new KFF Constitution which stated:
"The Kenyan Premier League shall be owned and managed by the KFF Premier League Limited (KPL), a legally registered private company in which the participating clubs must have equal shares and votes. The KFF shall also be a shareholder and the KFF National Chairman shall be a voting member of the KPL Board of Directors."
As agreed with the KFF Normalisation Committee and FIFA on November 8, 2004, the KPL shareholders agreed to change their company name to "KFF Premier League Ltd" as is the practice in England and many other countries where the league is owned and run by clubs.
However, unlike in England where the FA has a non-voting share and seat on the Board, the KFF has voting shares and a voting seat on the KPL Board. Our clubs also agreed to recog-nize the overall authority and responsibility of the KFF on key issues such as amending the rules and the training and promotion of referees.
Professionalizing our Premier League
To help accelerate the transition, the clubs also welcomed the recently announced FIFA/KFF initiative to invite senior officials of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in South Africa to meet with the KFF and clubs on May 2nd. The South Africa clubs have owned and managed their Premier League since the mid-1990s and successfully made it a top league in Africa. Their experience will really be helpful in making our own transition in the next few months.
These new initiatives are both necessary and timely for professionalizing our Premier League and saving our clubs. In the last two years six top clubs collapsed. Today, several more clubs are collapsing financially while most other top clubs struggle to survive on annual budgets of only Ksh 5-8 million. From their limited budgets clubs must pay exorbitant KFF fees without receiving any KFF financial support or even awards for the top clubs, players, coaches and referees. Yet in South Africa in 2004, each PSL club received a grant of over Ksh 47 million. Last year the PSL clubs also shared cash awards of over Ksh 300 million.
These new initiatives are also necessary to save and improve Kenyan football. With the KPL now running the Premier League, the KFF can refocus on its many other responsibilities and challenges such as revitalizing the Harambee Stars and other national teams, reviving the Nationwide League, restarting the many dormant KFF Branch leagues and rebuilding progr-ammes for youth development, women's football and the training of coaches and referees.
For example, clubs fear relegation to the Nationwide League because it is too large, too congested, too expensive and so badly managed. But in England and South Africa and other top ranked football nations, their nationwide leagues are also managed by private companies owned by the participating clubs. Even the English FA is itself a private company.
Other KPL Decisions
Our clubs also agreed:
- THAT the KPL Chairman from Nzoia FC should now represent their clubs as the KFF Second Vice Chairman and the KPL Vice Chairman from Tusker FC should serve as the second club representative on the KFF National Executive Committee;
- THAT match appointments made by the KFF Referees Committee cannot be changed by other KFF National or Branch officials without the agreement of both clubs;
- THAT KFF should immediately publish a list of which clubs received new players cards without making any or full payment for those cards since the season started plus a list of the names of players and clubs who received new players cards since March 1st;
- THAT free entry for Premier League matches will be provided only for the five appointed match officials, a maximum of 30 officials and players from the visiting club plus all accredited journalists;
- THAT KFF should immediately publish a full list of all active leagues organized by each of the 16 KFF Branches plus a list of all active clubs presently playing in those leagues;
- THAT the pre-season promotion/relegation agreements made on August 26, 2004 by the KFF Normalization Committee and club representatives and unanimously endorsed on August 28, 2004 by 19 clubs must be applied without change or exceptions;
- THAT KFF should immediately inform its member clubs on what action it has taken with regard to the failure of the previous KFF administration to circulate audited accounts and what steps KFF has taken to recover all KFF and FIFA funds which have not been properly accounted for by the previous KFF officials;
- THAT KFF should provide its member clubs with a detailed financial statement for the period June-December 2004 when the KFF Normalization Committee was in charge of KFF with special attention to the reported loss of gate receipts for international matches and take immediate disciplinary and legal action against any of those officials who have still not accounted for funds entrusted to them;
- THAT KFF should immediately inform all its member clubs if it has signed a marketing or similar agreement with any company or group and if it has done so then it should provide publicly the full details on who approved the agreement and what it contains;
- THAT the report* "For the Good of the Game: Achieving Good Governance, Financial Transparency and Stakeholder Accountability for Saving and Improving Kenyan Foot-ball" is approved by our clubs and should be submitted immediately to the KFF Chair-man for distribution to all participants at the FIFA/KFF workshop next week.
This statement was approved by the following majority of Premier League clubs:
Coast Stars FC, Kenya Commercial Bank FC, Kenya Pipeline FC, Kisumu Telkom FC, Mathare United FC, Mumias Sugar FC, Nzoia Sugar FC, Securicor FC, Shabana FC, Sher Agencies FC, Thika United FC, Tusker FC and World Hope FC
* The media can obtain copies of this report by contacting:
Jack Oguda
Acting Managing Director
Kenyan Premier League Ltd
Riadha House, Box 5350
Nairobi 00506, Kenya
Mobile 254-722-741411