FALSE: Photo does not show the drought situation in Embolioi, Kajiado County, in October 2022
Admin By Shadrack Andenga Odinga
Gormahia chairman Ambrose Rachier has reiterated the importance of the football season adding that the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in massive losses to his club.
Speaking exclusively to Ruben Fm on Monday, Rachier who recently won his position unopposed during his club’s elections was an unhappy man.
“Part of our business is to raise money that sustains the club through gate collections and selling replicas and without football it means we don’t have income. Our sponsors also have not released finances until football resumes. It is difficult then to be able to continue paying salaries and doing other normal activities involving financial engagements,” the city lawyer said adding that the government and FKF are making things worse when they don’t come up with proper guidelines and instructions of when and how football activities can return in Kenya again.
According to the chairman who boasts winning the Kenya Premier league seven times in a row, Gormahia’s income when playing league matches at home differs from around 600 thousand shillings to about one million.
He laments and says that while not playing 17 home matches in a season, then on the upper side locally Gormahia has not made approximately 17 million shillings from gate collections.
“Being champions of Kenya also means that we play continental football. During such matches, we make anywhere from 2.5 million shillings to about 2.8 million shillings that we have completely lost because of Covid 19. With about six to seven international matches depending on how we proceed in every stage, we have lost about 10 million shillings,” said Rachier.
The chairman believes that those who mockingly call him Mugabe are simply jealous of his success because of his superb management skills.
He goes ahead with his mathematics indicating that Gor Mahia does release about two thousand replicas a year which goes for three thousand shillings per piece. According to ‘Jaduong’ that’s about six million shillings lost grossly
The chairman is now calling upon the ministry of sports and FKF to come up with speedy measures that will result in the resumption of football activities in Kenya.
The report of the task force that was appointed by the minister of sports is yet to be tabled with their recommendations on how and when can football activities resume.
Other countries in Africa such as Tanzania and Burundi have resumed football activities, in Kenya it’s still a wait and see game.
