12-time Kenyan champions AFC Leopards have sent a stern warning to those selling the club’s fake replicas, while at the same time cautioning their faithful against falling for fake merchandise.In a statement on Saturday, Ingwe, through their new Secretary General Gabriel Andugu said that they would be announcing the availability of the new club’s merchandise once they finalize their sponsorship deal with the new sponsors.”This is to inform you that it has come to our attention that fake replica are being sold in the market. This is illegal, and we are issuing this caution to all of our valued customers to avoid confusion and false purchases. We would also like to inform you that the sanctioned replica will be available through our authorized distributors once the deal with our new sponsors has been completed. Thank you for your kind attention and continued support,” the statement signed Andugu read.A look into AFC Leopards 2021 financialsThe club will strive to ensure that they maximize on merchandise sale in the coming season to bolster their revenue but to do that they have to devise a way to keep away the merchants of fake merchandise.In 2021, the club realized only Ksh 451,000 from the sale of merchandise compared to Ksh 2,810,950 the year before, which is more than six times the amount collected in 2021.
In the past decade, the highest amount that Ingwe collected from merchandise sales was Ksh 2,824,700 in 2018, and an almost similar figure in 2020 but in all other years they have struggled to hit half a million shillings from such an activity.