Games and Sports
Shabana in Trouble As Officials Throw in Towel
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 22 July 2007 22:51
Not that things were any better with Matundura in charge. Indeed, there were more complaints from players over unpaid salaries and allowances then than now.
The club's basic problems of lack of a financial and administrative base have persisted. Elective posts in the club's management have been hawked around to prospective candidates but drawn little interest.
Actually, just like AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia, nobody wants to become a Shabana official as that will mean bankrolling the club single-handedly.
A Nairobi lawyer, Lumumba Nyaberi, was elected chairman in absentia in an election early this year, but he resigned from the post in less than a month.
The founder chairman of the club, Dogo Khan, who is the proprietor of Shabana Hardware in Kisii town, has been financing the club but he too has now thrown in the towel.
The Kisii businessman has now asked the club to appoint a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the club since he will no longer be financing the club's operations.
"I have been stretched to the limit and cannot go beyond this," he said in a press statement early this week.
The club's problems have been compounded by a reported mysterious disappearance of gate receipts during the team's last two home matches.
But despite these hitches, Shabana has clung on, returning some spectacular results like their 1-0 win over Gor Mahia last weekend. Gor went to Gusii on a high after breaking Oserian's unbeaten league record with a 2-1 win the previous weekend but found Shabana in no mood to capitulate.
Now without the financial support of the Khan, the team is in danger of not honouring their fixture against Oserian in Naivasha this afternoon. Khan, however, insists the players are not discouraged by these developments.
"I leave the club at a time when all players's salaries and allowances have paid upto June 30 and the players are in good spirits and shape," says Khan.
So Oserian had better beware. Shabana have never been known cave in on the pitch even when they have administrative problems. The flowermen will also have to be alert when they take on the hard-tackling armed forces side Ulinzi Stars tomorrow. The soldiers have been known to cow even the best sides into submission with their physical game
