REVEALED: How ex-Leopards officials paid themselves ‘watching’ allowance
Former AFC Leopards officials once awarded themselves ‘allowances’ to watch the first team play, Nairobi News can now reveal.
Records in our possession indicate that the club’s former officials during the Matthew Opwora’s reign approved this strange payment, which basically allowed the national executive committee get the dubious reputation of being paid to attend a football match, and not vice versa.
Although not illegal, this kind of allowance hardly exists even in the developed world of football, as it is assumed a club official will have the passion to follow the team’s performances and even invest in the team’s welfare.
Records in our possession show that each official at the time was paid Sh5,000 for “facilitation” to attend and watch a match.
FINANCIAL RED
These officials, totalling eight, also awarded themselves Sh10,000 each for each National Executive Committee sitting.
“The club’s current financial state is as a result of those decisions,” a current official of the club told Nairobi News.
“Those monies should have been used to buy quality players and pay them well. Instead, the officials awarded themselves and the club now suffers.”
Opwora and a majority of the officials who pocketed this money went on to lose to current chair Dan Mule in the elections conducted last year.
Leopards, meanwhile, remain in financial red, and only recently required a Sh150,000 token from Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja to honour last weekend’s league match against Kakamega Homeboyz.