Sofapaka president Elly Kalekwa has sensationally claimed that the embattled centre back Michael Kibwage will only be granted his wishes if he agrees to reimburse the club an unspecified amount of money or tones down and asks for forgiveness.Kibwage and the club have been at loggerheads for months over his future at the club, with the latter insisting that he is their valued asset. On the other hand, the player who terminated his contract in June is eager to complete the process and start life away in another team.In June, Kibwage declared that he was a free agent after walking out of the club for lack of timely payment of his salary. The club reportedly responded by axing him to the junior side and further fined him Ksh 250,000 for highlighting his plight at the club across different media outlets.Kibwage divorcing Sofapaka after enduring four months without salaryWhen push came to shove, the case was brought to the attention of the Player Status Committee wing of Football Kenya Federation and further taken to the Sports Disputes Tribunal’s door much to the detriment of the player who is said to have missed on the opportunity of turning professional as a South African club had reportedly expressed interest in his services.🔵Update 🗞️We wish to distance ourselves from news doing round in the social media about skipper Michael Kibwage.We wish to confirm that Kibwage has a valid contract that runs out in October 2022 and therefore is a bonified Sofapaka player until proven otherwise@OyandoRonny pic.twitter.com/g5qoirsDmW— Sofapaka FC (@FC_Sofapaka) August 10, 2021 Kalekwa claims that the player last year signing pocketed millions of shillings in sign-on fees and salaries that were not commensurate to the number of minutes he clocked in the Sofapaka shirt. The former national U23 defender was captured from KCB in October and was named the captain in February with Mohamed Kilume deputizing him.The club chief claims that they will only hand him his release letter if he wires back part of the money he was advanced or bows to the management and ask for forgiveness.“We spent millions to acquire his signature and his monthly salary but he didn’t serve us expected. He will only get his release letter if he pays us back. He still has a contract with us and we are open to having him back to the squad if he asks for forgiveness after all we are a family,” he said.Michael Kibwage has officially parted ways with Sofapaka.He terminated his contract over nonpayment of his salary.#FKFPL pic.twitter.com/kDhm9r4qCI— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) August 9, 2021 Reacting to Kalekwa’s claims, the former AFC Leopards player said he had not been served with the demands from the club. He said that his lawyer was handling the case and was best suited to give more details on the progress the interested parties had made.“I haven’t heard from the club for some time now. The case is being handled by my representative who hasn’t briefed me over any monetary demands from Sofapaka. I am keeping fit on my own in anticipation for my return to the pitch,” said the Kenyan international.The 2009 league champions who began the league with a 3-1 win over Nairobi City Stars last weekend are currently grappling to get their name off FIFA’s red list that has seen them fail to register their new players.Kalekwa vows to get Sofapaka off FIFA’s red list
