AFC Leopards boss confident of clearing pending payments as Ingwe face prospect of being locked out of Premier League

Patrick Aussems (L) and Dan Shikanda (R). ©Courtesy

FOOTBALL AFC Leopards boss confident of clearing pending payments as Ingwe face prospect of being locked out of Premier League

Mark Kinyanjui 08:16 - 12.08.2023

Leopards must give a clear plan of how they will pay money owed to former coach Patrick Aussems by today or risk getting relegated from the top flight

AFC Leopards are facing the prospect of being locked out of the Football Kenya Federation next season if they would not have come up with a clear plan to clear dues owed to former coach Patrick Aussems by the end of Saturday. 

Ingwe are currently under a transfer embargo over a bill of over Ksh20 million due to breach of contract and have been unbale to register their new players, two weeks before the season starts. It has now emerged that the club is yet to complete all the necessary documents that will see them get their Club License, a process whose deadline is Saturday. 

It means Leopards have to find a way to reach a resolution on the pending payments or risk having CAF's Club Licensing Online Platform closed before they submit their documents which would see them barred from featuring in the league as it happened in Zambia this week when Buildcon were relegated to the third tier.

Buildcon were relegated to the National Division One league after the 2022/23 season following repeated breaches of Football Association of Zambia and FIFA statutes around player transfer and remuneration, the same situation Leopards currently find themselves in. 

However, Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda is putting on a brave face, exuding confidence that the club will reach an amicable solution with Aussems’ camp to pay the accrued dues over the next 10 days.

“We need to clear first and foremost with the former coach but all said and done, we are confident that if we do that. We should sort out the situation within the next 10 days hopefully,” Shikanda told Pulse Sports.

The Belgian, who left Leopards last month after two-and-a-half years in charge, reported the club to FIFA in March 2022 over unpaid dues of Ksh3.5 million from July 31, 2021, when he signed a new two-year contract, to December 28, 2021.

FIFA accepted his claim, ordering the club to pay him Ksh3.5 million as remuneration and Ksh17 million as compensation for breach of contract, while also slapping them with a three-window transfer ban for failing to pay him within 45 days.

Shikanda also revealed that the club has completed 80 percent of its recruitment plans for the new season, with an emphasis on adding some experience to a largely youthful group.

“The change has been mixing experience with youth. Last season, we relied very heavily on youth," he added.

“We finished seventh last season, which is not ideal because of the ban imposed on us by FIFA. We had fewer players, meaning we used only 13 players in the league which limited us from achieving our objectives.

“We had a more youthful side because of the batch of seven, eight players we brought from the youth team. We have relied on them for over the last two years.

“We had a short window where we signed some four players but again it was a big battle to have them registered, the likes of Victor Omune. By the time we were registering them, the window was closed quickly again.

“They gave the best they could. We have gone for two years without using the top transfer windows which has disadvantaged us.

“Going forward, we hope that once we resolve this issue, the players we bring on board will help us meet expectations.”