FC Talanta have dismissed claims suggesting that the outfit has been frequently exploiting and deliberately holding on to players’ salaries and allowances.The Kenneth Kenyatta coached side hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again on Tuesday after a clique of football stakeholders alleged that the players had not received allowances for the eleven matches won in the concluded season.Further, the club was cited for exploiting the players by manipulating the terms of their contracts apparently deposited at the Communications Authority of Kenya which has been sponsoring the team since 2015.FC Talanta’s decision to boycott their match against Kakamega Homeboyz over salary arrears has come at a price.Gaming firm 10 Bet has decided to terminate its sponsorship deal with the club.The club signed a three-year deal with firm in September 2021.#FKFPL pic.twitter.com/z32OTs6XRy— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) July 6, 2022 The club finds itself in a financial conundrum after losing one of the shirt sponsors a couple of weeks ago and to add salt to the injury, their contract with the parastatal expired in June although talks to have it renewed are understood to be on.The outfit had been called out for producing two sets of contracts for each player with the copy capturing a higher and actual salary each player should get at the end of the month being shared with the sponsor.Apparently, as per the allegations, the club produces another copy detailing a much lower amount (salary) that is dished to the players with unnamed officials benefiting from the asymmetry in the amounts captured in the two copies.The club’s Chief Executive Officer Douglas Ratemo, in a rebuttal, admitted that his office had not paid the players May and June salaries as well as a handful of allowances.Gooooooooaaall Anthony Gichu superbly curles to the top corner of the goal to double our lead.Talanta 2 AP 0#Talanta— FC Talanta – CA (@FcTalanta_CA) April 26, 2019 The administrator blamed the delay in remittance of funds from their previous shirt sponsor for the hiccup witnessed in handing the players their dues on time.According to a player who sought anonymity, the club is yet to pay allowances for five wins registered in the second tier and a similar number of wins garnered in the past season. The delays saw the club boycott a league match against Kakamega Homeboyz in the final stages of the 2021-2022 Football Kenya Federation Premier League season.##NAJAVA_MECA_6501859##The club that has an average monthly wage of approximately two million shillings is demanding at least four million shillings from the betting firm they entered a three-year-long partnership with, starting last year only for the two entities to part ways last month.“It is true we haven’t paid salaries for May and June as we have not received money from one of our sponsors whom we had an agreement to fund us to the tail end of the 2021-2022 season. We will pay the players their salary once the firm avails the four million shillings the firm is supposed to give as per the details of the deal. Regarding the allowances, we are working round the clock to clear before the new season gets underway,” he said.It’s battle royale between champs Tusker and Kakamega Homeboyz for Okello’s signatureEarlier on, the club cleared the air on the issue touching on players’ contract saying that each player had a single contract contrary to the allegations.“The issues pertaining to players ‘contract are within the strict domain of the FC Talanta and the individual players and, in keeping with the nature of the contracts, the Football Club maintains that every player has single contract and not as claimed in the impugned reports,” read part of the statement from the club.
