NAIROBI, September 25 – The World Cup qualifier between Harambee Stars and Namibia’s Brave Warriors registered a profit of Sh4.2 million.
The match raised a total revenue of Sh12.6 million with the bulk of the revenue coming from sponsorship and television rights as well as increased ticket sales which were sold nationwide for the first time in the match played on September 6.
“Tickets that were made available upcountry did not sell as much as we hoped they would. Of our upcountry locations, Thika sold most tickets followed by Mombasa and Kisumu,”said Henry Carlos, communications manager for security company G4S who oversaw ticket sales for the fixture.
Carlos said a total of 22,033 tickets worth Sh5.2 million were sold and 505 car passes worth Sh50,500 were issued on matchday.
Receipts from lower and upper terraces ticket sales amounted to Sh4 million while sales in the VIP section netted Sh1.13 million.
Team bonuses from the Kenya Government and Kenya Data Networks amounted to Sh1.81 million.
Television rights were the highest in Kenyan sports history with Sh1.8 million paid for exclusive national coverage.
Total expenditure of the match amounted to Sh8.44 million with the biggest payment of Sh1.33 million made to G4S for their services.
Seven hundred thousand shillings was used to fly in foreign based players while Sh588,250 was used to cater for the team’s accommodation at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
Meanwhile, Kenya Premier League chairman Bob Munro has expressed his disappointment with the current wrangles between his organization and the Kenya Football Federation (KFF).
Munro accused some KFF officials of frustrating the work of the Harambee Stars Management Board which began its work in May and has steered the team to the third round of the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
“I think I’m speaking on behalf of my KPL colleagues when I say we are tired and disappointed at being publicly ambushed, attacked and stabbed in the back by partners,” said Munro.
The Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) founder added that some officials in the game’s governing body were incessantly frustrating the efforts of the board despite rising Harambee stars rising 51 places in the FIFA rankings.
“The cooperation between KPL and the KFF took us to 86th position in the world. Now why would anyone want to undermine that and try to sabotage the qualifying campaign,” Munro told a packed media briefing at Riadha House on Wednesday.
“We have a very good relationship with the chairman Mohamed Hatimy who has never broken his word with us, but some KFF officials have not maintained the same standard,” he added.
“Once our contract with the KFF runs next month out we will go back to running the league which is now one of the fastest rising in Africa and we hope to make it one of the richest on the continent in the next five years,” said Munro.
The chairman was reacting to a statement made by KFF vice chairman Titus Kasuve in a section of the media where he said that the KPL had overstepped its mandate and was trying to seize control of the Harambee Stars which according to Kasuve was the sole responsibility of the KFF.
A dispute had emerged earlier this week over the start of the national team’s camp which was due to start on Monday but was postponed to next week.
It had emerged that Stars coach Francis Kimanzi had called for the camp to begin last Monday only for the KPL to push it back a week.
Kimanzi had wanted to three weeks to prepare the team for their World Cup qualifier against Guinea on October 12.
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