Cash-strapped and broke are two adjectives that have been used to describe Kenya’s two footballing giants in Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards so much that penury has become synonymous with the two clubs.The 2021-2022 FKF Premier League is just hours away from kickoff but most clubs remain in a financial quagmire ahead of the new season, with AFC notably being on FIFA’s red list and are barred from registering new players at the moment for not honoring their financial obligations to some of their players and coaches.Recently, with the adverse situations brought about by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, clubs have struggled financially with no sponsors wishing to commit.In the past, clubs have folded their operations owing to this issue. Recently, Chemelil Sugar, Sony Sugar, and Thika United have fallen victims to financial strains.But, what does it take to run a club smoothly for a month and a year by extension, and does financial status have an impact on a team’s performance in the season?In unofficial figures seen by Mozzart Sport, different clubs get funding from different sources in addition to the slight grant from title league broadcast sponsorship.In this case, we shall look at clubs enjoying parastatal funding, private funding, as well as private clubs with pre-existing sponsorship deals with different firms.🔐| All the 18 Sides in Season 2021/22.Which Side are you supporting?#FKFPL pic.twitter.com/p7BPlJA6Rh— FKF Premier League (@Officialfkfpl) September 23, 2021 Six clubs set to take part in the 2021/22 campaign fall under the parastatal category including Bandari FC, Nzoia Sugar, Ulinzi Stars, Posta Rangers, as well as newbies Talanta FC and Police FC.Six other clubs are funded by private individuals or companies, corporate teams, and they include Wazito FC, Tusker FC, Nairobi City Stars, Bidco United, KCB, and debutants Vihiga Bullets.The other six clubs are funded by betting companies starting with Kakamega Homeboyz who are funded by MozzartBet, with Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards, Kariobangi Sharks, Sofapaka, and Mathare United all enjoying some form of sponsorship from betting companies.The performance of the clubs seems to be directly proportional to the performance of individual teams, except maybe for Gor Mahia who had a torrid season despite the budgets.”Gor Mahia FC is broke.Players are on Strike,they didnt turn up for trainin,we dont know how the players will travel tomorrow to Rwanda.”— Chris Migwambo (@CMigwambo) November 25, 2020 Tusker, KCB, and Bandari are some of the most stable teams in the league, not in terms of the amount they pay their players but also in ensuring they pay without delay.On average, the 18 clubs that took part in the 2020-21campaign had a monthly budget of Ksh5.2M, with salaries taking Ksh3.2M of the budget, translating to Ksh62.7M per year.In the same campaign, clubs were receiving slightly over Ksh800,000 per month from the league sponsorship, leaving them to find means on how to raise Ksh4.4M to meet their budget.Interestingly, parastatal clubs tended to have the least monthly budget and salaries expenditure on average, with a budget of Ksh4.9M and salaries expenditure of Ksh2.9 million per month on average.AFC Leopards is broke can you assist? For the love of the sport.— Victor Oduor🇰🇪 (@Victor_Oduor_An) March 12, 2020 Clubs on corporate and or private sponsorship, and those sponsored by betting companies had a higher monthly average on salaries at Ksh3.4M and a budget of Ksh5.1M and Ksh5.7M respectively.Bandari have the largest monthly budget of Ksh10M, spending Ksh6M on salaries.From the figures seen, teams that have foreign and experienced players and coaches within their ranks tend to have a higher wage bill, with Bandari, Tusker, and Gor Mahia leading in that category.For teams that rely mostly on local talent and young players yearning to showcase their quality at the top stage, like Nzoia Sugar, have a lower operating budget occasioned by the low wage bill.Tusker Fc is giant that should be competing with top teams in Africa but know is underdog competing domestic league and sometime performance is not good EABL has failed adquatly to Finance Tusker Fc— peter kibe (@peterkibe17) January 7, 2021 Bandari, a parastatal team, is the club that enjoys the highest funding in a year with up to Ksh120M while Talanta, yet another parastatal team, has the least funding with an annual budget of Ksh32.4M but the amount could go up this season with their elevation to the top-tier league.The average wage bill of the top six clubs is slightly higher than that of the middle six, with the bottom six being lower than that of the middle six.If Gor Mahia performed as per the expectations and the wage bill, perhaps the average monthly salaries for the top six clubs would have been higher than it is.
