Its upon AFC fans to bail out the club
AFC Leopards fans during their KPL match against Gor Mahia at Nyayo Stadium on April 12, 2015. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU |
What you need to know:
- It is upon the entire Ingwe nation to rescue the ship before it capsizes.
- Only then will we be able to salvage our fortunes this season.
It is understandable that AFC Leopards hasn’t had the ideal preparations for this year’s edition of the Kenyan Premier League.
Not with the many administrative and financial difficulties the team has had to endure during the last couple of months.
Matters have not been helped much by the problems facing our once glamorous sponsor, Mumias Sugar Company.
As you read this piece, the company has as good as cancelled the sponsorship due to financial constraints on their part, leaving Ingwe at the mercy of well wishers.
At some point during the December transfer window, even the most optimistic of fans had given up on Ingwe signing any new players owing to lack of funds.
It is a miracle that we managed to add the likes of Emmanuel Ngama, Martin Kiiza and Karim Ndungwa to our playing unit.
INDIFFERENT START
It is therefore only natural that these problems must manifest themselves in the team’s indifferent start to the season which has seen the boys manage only two wins, a similar number of draws and one loss in the first five matches.
The frequent stand-offs between the playing unit and the technical bench on one side, and the club’s so called administrators on the other, over unpaid salaries and allowances, have further compounded the problem, contributing to this slow start.
Having been privileged to watch all the five matches besides Sumday’s derby, I can authoritatively state here that save for the loss to Ulinzi Stars a fortnight ago, a slightly better organized Leopards ought to have easily won all the other four matches.
This is not to suggest by any measure that Ulinzi is invincible, far from it. We only lost, fairly I must admit, to the soldiers due to three factors — a treacherous pitch, the early injuries to captain Jackson Saleh and Edwin Seda and Ulinzi’s disgusting time wasting antics.
If not for the distractions that preceded last weekend’s game against Thika United, the three points ought to have been Ingwe’s for the taking.
Its difficult for one to expect good results in an environment where training sessions are boycotted for days on end, key players fail to report for training due to lack of bus fare and the team’s travelling plans are regularly disrupted.
Surely, this is not the Ingwe our founder members envisioned. It is upon the entire Ingwe nation to rescue the ship before it capsizes. Only then will we be able to salvage our fortunes this season.
