Mathare United respond after FKF-PL relegation

Former Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League champions Mathare United Tuesday blamed the Caretaker Committee for their relegation, saying it delayed in disbursing funds to the club leading to their current woes.

The Slum Boys were officially relegated on Saturday by the newly appointed FKF Transition Committee, who said they followed the law governing Kenya football before taking the decision.

However, in an elaborate letter to the Transition Committee Head of Secretariat, Linda Oguttu, Mathare United Chairman Bob Munro said they would have not faced the axe had the Caretaker Committee disbursed Sh900,000 before their match against Sofapaka on May 6, which they failed to honour to due to lack of funds.

“On May 10, four days before our scheduled match with Sofapaka and before its mandate ended,  the FKF Caretaker Committee finally paid its long overdue monthly grant arrears of Sh900,000,” said Munro.

“If the FKF Caretaker Committe had paid its grants arrears four days earlier, those funds were sufficient to avoid forfeiting our third match plus cover the cost of remaining five matches,” added the veteran football administrator.

He also reckoned that had the Caretaker committee paid its grants before April 23, Mathare United would have honoured the matches against Bandari and Ulinzi Stars, which are the other games they missed leading to their relegation.

Before the mandate of the Caretaker committee ended last Thursday, it had accumulatively paid Sh1.5 million to the clubs in the top-flight league, though Sh900,000 was paid in their last day in office.

In the now disbanded FKF Nick Mwendwa-led regime, clubs used to get Sh960,000 per month as grant from the then sponsors of the league BetKing and South African broadcasting firm StarTimes, which terminated their contracts towards the end of last season.

“Is it right and fair infact and even in law for the FKF Transition Committee to suspend and  relegate Mathare United or any other team because its predecessor FKF Caretaker Committee in which you served failed to pay  its monthly grants to clubs in responsible, related and timely manner?” posed Munro.

Apart from a team being relegated after missing three matches, FKF rules state that lack of finance can’t be an excuse or be used as a defence by a team for failing to play twice in the league.

“Lack of finances shall not be considered an acceptable reason by the FKF,” states Rule 3.1.8.