Waiting For A Bus

Developments at Leopards sometimes mirror the adage, 'its like waiting for ages for a London bus, then three come along at once'. But that has a scientific explanation.

News at Leopards had been quiet until last week when three major events took place.

The first related to the signing of a TV deal with Smart TV and covered by the Leopards website.

A report by Dennis Masinde Wandabwa on Kenyanfootie gave news of the Ingwe TV.

Kenyan Premier league club AFC leopards have announced a Ksh 60 million deal with pay television company Smart TV to launch an official club television channel.

The channel which will be called Ingwe TV will air on the African Sports Network (ASN), a channel in the Smart TV bouquet. The deal was signed today (Wednesday May 25^th) by Leopards chairman Alex Magelo and Smart TV Chief Executive Officer Daniel Kagwe in Nairobi and will take immediate effect.

The deal, announced on the clubs official website will see leopards fans be able to access exclusive interviews, behind the scene footage, club archived matches, team profiles, historical documentaries, highlights and news, fans features and magazines.

The key components of the agreement include the production of the TV channel, Media promotion and a monetary grant to meet specific club budgetary obligations. The partnership, a first in East Africa, is aimed at providing content to the 6 million strong AFC support. 

The club hopes that Ingwe TV will play a key role in enhancing its image and profile besides exposing AFC talent to the international market. The channel will also play a part in the development of football in Kenya while generating much needed revenue for the club through sponsorships and advertising.

The partnership is expected to result into the development of AFC Leopards Youth Development Program with Smart TV playing a key role in the upkeep of the AFC Leopards under 19 popularly known as Emerging Leopards. 

Smart TV is a pay TV service owned by Next Generation Broadcasting and is operational in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana. In Ghana they have a similar partnership with Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club for the production of Kotoko TV.

The Star also covered the news.

KENYAN Premier League Club AFC Leopards has partnered with Smart TV to produce a dedicated TV channel dubbed “Ingwe TV” valued at more than Sh60m.  The 3-year deal was signed yesterday by Leopards’ chairman Alex Magelo and Smart TV chief executive officer Daniel Kagwe in Nairobi and will take effect immediately.

The key components of the agreement include the production of the TV channel, Media promotion and monetary grant to meet specific club budgetary obligations. The partnership, a first in East Africa, is aimed at providing content to the six million supporters of the club worldwide through various programmes including but not limited to exclusive interviews, behind the scene footage, club archived matches, team profiles, historical documentaries, highlights and news, fans features and magazines.

Airing on Smart TV’s African Sports Network (ASN) channel, Ingwe TV will play a key role in enhancing the image and profile of the club besides exposing AFC’s talent to the international market.
Ingwe TV will also play a part in the development of the game while generating revenue for the club through sponsorships and advertisement on the dedicated channel.

Smart TV is a pay TV service owned by Next Generation Broadcasting and is operational in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana where they have a similar partnership with Kumasi’s Asante Kotoko Football Club for the production of Kotoko TV.

The next related to the new constitution. The CEO announced that a 'new' constitution was ready and could be downloaded here

The third related to the sacking of players. The Club announced that NINE players were being fired or 'released'.

Michezoafrika picked up on this story.

AFC Leopards has fired nine players from its bloated 32 man squad as they embark on an intensive exercise to strengthen their team at the start of the transfer market on June 1st.The heaviest causalities that have faced the razor at Leopards include the Congolese trio of Itubu Imbem, Hugo Nzoka and Demonde Selenga.

However, none of the fired players has received his dismissal letters but were informed through their mobile phones.They were accused of lack of commitment and complacency in the pitch.

“Yes I confirm that we have been fired by though we are yet to receive our dismissal letters. We are also yet to understand the reasons behind our sack since we have been very committed and dedicated in our performance.” Said Itubu Imbem.

Other players who were not spared the axe include: Douglas Okumu, David Kutwa, Laban Tshimonjero, Gideon Israel, Edgar Waudo and Shabaan Ramadhan.

AFC Leopards through its technical director Hector Komo has been in an aggressive player recruitment exercise in the last two months with high profile names in the Kenyan Premier league approached to join the Mumias Sugar sponsored club.

“We want to make AFC Leopards the best club in the region and we are committed to getting some of the best players to join our ranks.” Said Hector in an earlier interview with michezoafrika.com

The team is seeking to reduce its playing unit from 32 to 25 players for the second leg in a bid to keep its wages on a manageable scale as well as maintain competition amongst the players.

AFC Leopards has been struggling to get back its claws in the recent past with coach Nick Yakhama finding the going tough since his take over following the dismissal of Robert Matano a couple of weeks back.

Leopard currently occupies the 8th spot on the league table in the Kenyan Premier League standings with 16 points and lost their immediate last match at home 1-2 to Sony Sugar at Nyayo National Stadium on Saturday. 

The Nation reported

Supersport also carried the story.

Not strangely and just like happened with the sacking of Robert Matano, the Leopards tactician and the hiring of Nick Yakhama, some members of the Leopards 'officials' went to press complaining that they had not been consulted.

Speaking to Michezoafrika, Hector Como was quoted as follows:-

AFC Leopards technical director Hector Como was not at all consulted nor informed of the alleged sacking of the nine players from the team. Como is in return faulting the AFC Leopards management for making hurried decisions to sack the players without inviting him to the meetings held on Monday evening.

The said meeting that was meant to have decided to fire the players was held on Monday at the same time when Hector was meeting other prospective players to woo their services to the AFC Leopards pay list.

“I have not been informed of anything about this move and am not aware of any players having been sacked. This is completely unprofessional because nobody involved or informed me of the decision if at all they have fired the players.” Said Hector Como.

On Monday, Hector was meeting: Jamal Mohamed, Mike Baraza, Joseph and Pascal Ochieng for talks on their possible moves to AFC Leopards in the second leg and he fails to understand why he was not consulted as the technical director.

“The executive meeting was held on Monday between 6pm to 11 pm and I was not in attendance and I do not know what they decided. I was from 6.30 till 7.30 with Mike Baraza for a cup of coffee and after mike I was talking with Jamal Mohamed. Around 9 pm I met Joseph Nyagah and was with him and Pascal Ochieng till 10:30 pm. So the decision made by any executive am not aware of and was not involved at all. So I distance myself from the media reports appearing of the alleged sackings.” He explained

“In my opinion and in reference to my philosophy,although I hold no powers to stop the management from making executive decisions, my duty is to advice and in this case it is a big mistake to let the players go at this time. Some of those players are of great quality and the positions they play are crucial.KPL’s new rule does not allow recruitment of more than four new players in the mid season transfer and if they are serious about releasing all these players, where shall we get the replacement to some of them.?” Asked a Concerned Hector.

In a chat with michezoafrika.com, Hector advises that the best move for AFC Leopards if indeed they are seeking to dump these players would be to loan them out to other clubs with a hope of retrieving their services at the end of the contractual period.

“For me it is better to loan out these players instead of sacking them. That way we will still own them in the event of other moves in future. Soccer is big business across the world and letting some of the best players go on free release is not advisable at all. Some of them can make frequent first eleven in other small clubs and that way we shall be improving their quality of the game since we shall be exposing them more. So in this case after 6 months these players playing constantly can be in great form when we get them back to us and automatically their value will be higher.” He added.

According to Como, the team needs surgery by recruiting one full back left defender, one stopper, one midfielder and a good lethal striker who can bring punch in attack upfront.

“It is not possible to recruit players in each position in mid season. That is not only unacceptable by the KPL rule but it is suicide to do so for a team that will have less time to gel in the mid season.Waudo is a great player we need to keep, Fullback right is only him and Edwin if we suppose that Edwin will have an injury who will substitute him? These are the technical questions we need to look at before making a final decision to fire players and I think the management is making a big mistake.” He quipped.

All said, the management holds all the executive powers to fire and hire players under advice from the technical bench. However none of the players has received neither an official letter of dismissal or release.

The sacked players also gave soundbites to Michezoafrika terming their expulsion a departure from hell to paradise.

The Nation also picked up this reaction in a report by John Ashihundu.

Charles Nyende of the Nation reacted to this sacking by calling AFC Leopards clawless pussycats.

Mumias Sugar Company also reacted by threatening to terminate the sponsorship of Leopards as per this story by the Star.

Never a dull day at the Leopards.