AFC Leopards have been dealt a blow ahead of the start of the Football Kenya Federation Premier League campaign with the registration of 10 of their players rejected by the FKF.Cliff Nyakeya, Josphat Lopaga, Victor Omune, and Musa Oundo who joined the team last season will not feature for Ingwe, with six other players from the junior team also not cleared.Emmanuel Lwanga, Ronald Sichenje, Loren James, Victor Otieno, Aboubakar Musha, and Nester Olum, all from the junior side, will have to wait longer to make their Premier League debuts for the 12-time Kenyan champions following the rejection of their registration.AFC Leopards confirm that ten of their players will miss tomorrow’s game against Ulinzi Stars.Gor Mahia too affected.#FKFPL https://t.co/1BiTmhRORh pic.twitter.com/HFlExlj29z— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) November 18, 2022 The development has come as a big blow for coach Patrick Aussems who revealed to Mozzart Sport that he has been working with the players in his plans only to learn of their rejection earlier this week.”The league is starting tomorrow and we have a big issue. The FKF rejected 10 of our players and they are not yet registered so we will not be able to field them. These are the players I worked with last season more so in the second leg and getting the message that they will not be available for selection just days before the start of the league is a big blow,” Aussems said.##NAJAVA_MECA_6827621##In a statement, Leopards’ Secretary General Gilbert Andugu confirmed that 10 players will not be available for selection on Saturday but remained hopeful that the quagmire would be resolved as soon as possible to enable them to feature in the other upcoming matches.”We would like to take this opportunity to inform you that due to unforeseen technicalities, we will be unable to field ten of our players in tomorrow’s FKF Premier League match against Ulinzi Stars FC. This is being addressed, and we expect them to play in the upcoming matches,” the statement read.Ingwe is one of the clubs that are in the bad books of FIFA and were slapped with a two-window ban and will only be able to recruit players at the end of the 2022/23 season.Five Kenyan clubs serving FIFA Transfer bansThey were blocked from signing players by the world football governing body for registering players in February before they had cleared with their former captain Soter Kayumba and FIFA.However, the Belgian has accepted the turn of events and is upbeat that the remaining players will step up for their opening match against Ulinzi Stars on Saturday.”We were really focused for the first game and we were working with these players in mind it is difficult that I will not be able to field some of my best players but I have accepted that. I have a large group of 27 players and I trust every one of them. Some players like Kayci (Odhiambo) will have to make the bench although he just resumed training,” he added.
