AFC Leopards assistant Secretary General, Asava Kadima addresses media June 22.
NAIROBI, June 22 –AFC Leopards Organising Secretary, Timothy Lirumbi has resigned with immediate effect, citing frustration from members of the club.
Lirumbi who threw in the towel on Monday, was among the NEC Members put under pressure to quit owing to financial problems the club is facing that has seen players and technical bench go four months without salary and allowances.
The Organising Secretary who was elected two years ago resigned three months after chairman, Allan Kasavuli had tendered his resignation to leave the cash-strapped club with, Secretary General, George Aladwa, his assistant Prof. Asava Kadima and Committee member, Stephen Mungo as officials.
“Today there was demonstration at my work place, people who were carrying placards came to my office chanting ‘Timothy must go, Timothy must go’ so if I’m working for an organization where I’m not appreciated, then I have decided to go.
“If I was doing a good work it will be seen in future. I have resigned because I don’t want more troubles, whoever has been hiring goons can have a good sleep and let the other people carry on from where I left,” Lirumbi declared.
The financial crisis has seen nine players led by Harambee Stars custodian Wycliffe Kasaya and striker, Jacob Keli terminate their contracts but Kadima said they are persuading the players to reconsider their decision.
Skipper Martin Imbalambala has already joined FKF-Premier League side Nakumatt FC who are also hunting the services of Kasaya.
Kadima confirmed the club no longer receives Sh550, 000 monthly grants from Kenyan Premier League since they took loan including Sh1.6m to settle salary arrears for former head coach, Pieter Hendrik De Jong.
“Since Mumias stopped remitting money to the club in January, we have been unable to fulfill our obligation to pay our staff their salary and allowances for the past four months which totals Sh12m.
“We also took a loan at KPL to settle January arrears so that’s why we are conducting a major fundraising tomorrow to at least get something ahead of the second-leg since our monthly expenditure stands at Sh4.2m with Sh2.66m going towards salary while Sh1.5 is for running the club,” the Don who said they only receive Sh500, 000 from gate collections said.
The club is set to hold its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday next week where members will discuss various issues among them the leadership of the club that saw three factions claim to be in charge.
“We agreed that since Leopards has a constitution and the chairman resigned, it doesn’t mean the other four NEC members cannot run the club as far as we are concerned they are the legitimate officials who ran the club,” former vice chairman, Vincent Shimoli said.
Kadima confirmed they had requested to push their GOtv Shield round of 64 clash against FKF Premier League side, Ligi Ndogo to July 4 to enable them sign players.
