StarTimes end broadcast partnership with FKF

Chinese firm StarTimes on Thursday announced it had terminated its broadcast partnership deal with Football Kenya Federation.

The federation, which was disbanded two weeks ago by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, had entered into a seven-year partnership with StarTimes on November 20 last year.

Through a statement, StarTimes cited five reasons which made them opt out of the deal worth Sh110 million per season.

The botched Mashemeji Derby between arch rivals Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards on July 31 over non settlement of the FKF Betway Cup winners and runners up cash rewards was also cited by the Chinese firm as one of the reasons for their exit.

"Failure to deliver a number of scheduled broadcast fixtures: Despite prior confirmations, several fixtures including one Mashemeji derby in the 2020/21 season were not delivered," said StarTimes in a statement.

Among other reasons were the "persistent stakeholder wrangling within the football fraternity" that has pitted the government against FKF which has since led to the disbandment of the federation and the arrest of FKF boss Nick Mwendwa.

The other reasons stated by the broadcast firm are "failure to deliver a number of scheduled broadcast fixtures, frequent changes to confirmed fixtures, failure to honor agreed contract deliverables and constantly putting the StarTimes brand into disrepute."

“After careful review of the contract performance which is now in its second season, we regret to announce that we have taken the painful decision to withdraw our media and commercial rights sponsorship with the now disbanded Football Kenya Federation,” said the statement from StarTimes.

“The cited reasons and others have combined to make it almost impossible to have a return on investment through sponsorship of the said property,” the statement added.

“The decision has likewise been communicated to the relevant stakeholders including recently appointed caretaker committee.”

The decision comes barely three months after Nigerian gaming firm BetKing terminated its sponsorship of the top tier league worth Sh1.2 billion which was supposed to run for the next five years.

BetKing also terminated its sponsorship of the FKF Division One League which was also to run for five years and was worth Sh100 million. 

Under the sponsorship, each of the 32 Division One clubs from Zone A and Zone B will be entitled to at least Sh500,000.