Rachier: I will not leave until the club is on firm ground
Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier has indicated that despite saying he would leave the club, until he calms the financial storm that has been bedeveling the club since last August when sponsors Sportpesa pulled out of local football.
Additional reporting from the Nation
The veteran K’Ogalo boss reveals he will leave the Kenyan champions as soon as they steady the club
Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier has openly claimed he will not leave the club anytime soon.
On many occasions, Rachier has come out to state he is keen to leave the position of chairmanship at the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions, something that has never materialised.
Earlier this year, Rachier confessed he was thinking of handing over the mantle of running the club to a new chairman, but the elections were later postponed leaving him in office.
On Saturday, Rachier now said he will only leave Gor Mahia when they have solved the problems they are facing financially.
“It is quite true that last year on several occasions, not just once I indicated I will hand over the leadership mantle of Gor Mahia to another chairman in an election that would have been held sometime early this year,” Rachier told reporters after the team was hosted to a luncheon at a Nairobi Hotel.
“But what then has transpired is that our boat has been locked, I have been the captain of the boat and the boat has been rocked, first by the departure of the sponsor and now the coronavirus pandemic and for that reason, I have decided as a captain you do not let the boat sink when you are kind of directing it.
“We are going to look at different aspects here and there and when the boat is stabilised I will still carry out my intention, that is to leave, and that is my position, that I am still running Gor and will run it to a point I think it has been steadied because if I leave it now, in the situation it is, I will be accused of neglect.”
Rachier further clarified during the function that new title sponsors Betsafe will start bankrolling the club when the new Kenyan Premier League (KPL) season kicks off.
On Thursday, the Kenyan champions, along with their sworn rivals AFC Leopards, signed a partnership deal with the betting firm that will last for the next three years, with K’Ogalo set to pocket KSh55million per year while Ingwe will receive KSh45 million.
“As things stand now, we don’t have anything to give back to the new sponsor because there is no football being played,” Rachier told reporters after Gor Mahia’s players were hosted in a luncheon on Saturday.
“What we agreed on when signing the deal, is they will only be able to start funding the club when football resumes, and that can only be possible when our league starts again.”
Rachier further revealed the club was working on ways to reduce their monthly wage bill, which currently stands at Sh5million, by half.
“We have 35 players who are in our payroll and we must have Sh5million every month to clear their salaries and this is becoming a bit too much for the club to handle, so our aim, for now, is to try and reduce it to at least half,” Rachier continued.
“If you ask me, I would prefer our wage bill to stand at Sh3million a month because we can try to handle it.”
“Rachier also called on Gor Mahia fans to register as members in big numbers so they can directly help support the team financially.”
Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards have been struggling since SportPesa, their previous sponsor, left, leaving the club to depend on fans, members, and other well-wishers to honour matches and settle players’ allowances at times.
@35 players in the team , Gor Mahia has the largest squad in the World , and add this to the other fact that this club has the largest office holders in the world with no rational defined roles , the irrationality of this opulence is that this is one of the poorest clubs in the world but with a painful fact that it has the potential , if exploited , to be a very wealthy club .
It is sad that our peers in the region are exploiting their potential by maximising what is within their control and supplementing with what is without their control -the sponsors while our beloved club chairman is already mourning in advance about how the betsafe 55m will not be enough , Shikanda (Afc) is celebrating the lesser 40m with a reasoned plan to supplement it and has already put in motion a plan to open up a merchandise shop in the CBD of Nairobi .
Now as Rachier keeps bombarding as with dispiriting Glass is half empty messages , Shikanda is uplifting Afc fanbase with Glass is half full messages and the fact of of the matter is good , uplifting messaging and actions excite and inspire people to wish to get involved and even register as members in large number , perpetual mourning and beggar mentality does the complete opposite .
Our Mzee Rachier with his uzee ways of doing things needs a new generation thinktank to supplement his fat wallet , otherwise we all end up with the Rich fool syndrome .
Chairman Rachier has not been alone in Gor leadership, there is deputy chairman, secretary, treasure and a few other creams, how comes these others leaders don’t appear to ‘spoil’ the club the way chairman does? I am not supporting anyone but just wondering,. Or club leadership is at war with itself and fetching external alliance to help the infighting because the rest of the leaders seem to enjoy ‘good people’ in Gor, yet they could play the suggested young think-tanks. Can this paradox of the beauty and the ugly cohabiting be clarified ? There appear to be something in form of Governor Waititu- deputy Nyoro complex going on in the club.
@Sylvester , ofcourse theoritically Rachier is not alone , but practically he is very alone , secondly I want to ride on your waititu/Nyoro example but tweek it to Kivutha kibwana vis a vis MCAs 2013-2017 scenario , where the people chose a very good governor BUT gave him Useless bloodthirsty Draculas in the form of MCAs to work with .
Kivutha Kibwana’s benevolent ruthlessness saw the people side with him and showed ALL the MCAs the exit and the rest like they say , vis a vis Makueni County is history , a consequence of good leadership and an engaged citizenry , first backward to our very good but soft man Rachier , Rachier is akin to a wealthy handsome and very Strong man who has married a princess everybody desired but 8years down the line , he has no child to write home about , I.e because he is IMPOTENT , with NOTHING to show for 8years of engagement and let nobody bring in the example of winning the league because this is a club that has won the continental cup (87) , reached the finals in (79) , won the league over 10times before , won the regional cup numerous times and all these were won with almost 100% local players and at a time when players had divided loyalties between their day job and football .
Unfortunately for me , were elections to be called today and the contestants were the usual suspects , I would once again , like I did before , vote for Rachier , who as much as he is not meeting my threshold , he is at least giving the club some semblance of STABILITY as opposed to the availed opponents who given the chance , this vehicle called Gor Mahia would be balancing on stones
.
And a question to our esteemed Gor Mahia fraternity , were you to e.g own a cattle dip , would you entrust it to the likes of Nyangi , Bolo or Ngala , if the answer is no , then why entrust the same cabal to Gor Mahia and to my candidate Rachier , Gor mahia Is not a Guest house where you pay your way and then go to sleep and then build stadiums etc in your dreams.
True.
Why waste time and money building a stadium, nay dreaming of building one.
A good training ground will suffice but even that ranks at the bottom of the ladder in terms of priority when compared to building a strong team for continental titles/ honours.
Kisumu is building another stadium (why I don’t know instead of upgrading Moi stadium), so is Siaya and Homabay.
We also have Kasarani and sooner or later Nyayo.
Gor will soon be spoilt for choice.
The national / county governments will soon put up so many stadia in Kenya in Kirinyaga, Meru, Kiambu, Turukana etc that may just turn out to be white elephants unless the respective county governments sponsor / build strong county supported teams.
Teddy the Mafia will push you into silence like they did to Jasego. Jasego these days “amameza mate tuuu’ when the cannibals are eating meat. Truth be told Shikanda has an agenda.
In addition to the largest playing unit (+ wage bill) and largest number of office holders GMFC also has a huge annual expense budget of kes.200m with no corresponding projected income.
How does the lady treasurer expect to finance her budget?
Does she not expect any gate collections,membership fees, donations, government support in the form of airtickets or even the Betsafe sponsorship.
Isn’t the office supposed to be planning and approaching these partners early enough.
By Rodgers Eshitemi | Friday, Jun 19th 2020 at 03:32 The Standard.
Gor Mahia treasurer Sally Bolo said they will use part of the sponsorship to clear the players’ salaries.
“Our first priority is to make our players happy. But it is the duty of the technical bench to advise us on how to handle the cases of those players whose contracts are running out as we come up with a payment plan to settle their salary arrears,” said Bolo.
“But we need to continue working hard because there is a financial hole at Gor Mahia. Looking at our annual budget of Sh 200m and with a monthly wage bill of Sh5.5m I think any sponsorship of less than Sh 100m is very little for us. This huge budget is based on our participation in the continental football for the last three seasons.”
Balancing Sally’s kes.200m budget for Gor Mahia.
The budget of kes.200m is for KPL and also includes expenses for GMFC’s CAF campaign.
It’s seems projected income has not been reflected in the said budget so is GMFC’s treasurer claiming that the club has a projected budget deficit of kes.200m.
Anyway without asking the good lady to justify her budget GMFC should be able to easily meet an expense budget of kes.200m.
Remember the expenses will not be incurred at once or at the beginning of the season but will fall due at different times of the season.
A budget of kes.200 means that the GMFC officials have meticulously planned to reach at least the finals of the CAF champions league.
Therefore:
1) CAF CL Winners prize money is $250k or approx. Kes.250m.
Kes
Budgeted Expenses:. 200,000,000
Guaranteed Income
Betsafe Sponsorship. 55,000,000
CAF CL Winners
Prize money $250k 250,000,000
Surplus 105,000,000
2) Prize money for CAF CL Runners up or CAF CC Winners is $125k or approx. Kes.125m.
kes.
Budgeted Expenses. 200,000,000
Guaranteed Income
Betsafe Sponsorship. 55,000,000
CAF prize money. 125,000,000
Total 180,000,000
Deficit. (20,000,000)
3) Prize money for CAF CC runners up is $62.5 or approx. kes. 62.5m
Kes.
Budgeted Expenses. 200,000,000
Guaranteed Income
Betsafe Sponsorship 55,000,000
CAF prize money. 62,500,000
Total Income. 117,500,000
Deficit. (82,500,000)
If GMFC reaches upto the semi-finals only then the budget is reduced by the expenses for the finals not being incurred and hence the kes.200m will correspondingly reduce.
Note, not yet factored in are other sources of income or support the club has received in the past during its CAF campaigns. I.e airtickets from government, gate collections especially CAF matches and Mashemji derby, merchandise sales, donations etc.
If the payroll is reduced to a manageable kes.3m as proposed by Chairman Ador that will be a saving of kes.2 a month or kes. 24m a year hence the club has a surplus of kes. 4 for winning the CAF CC or being runners up in CAF CL.
The deficit in (3) drops to kes.48.5m.
This is without factoring other incomes apart from sponsorship and CAF prize money.
Betsafe Sponsorship should be adequate for KPL since it makes no sense to maintain high expenses, e.g salaries, when there is no corresponding anticipated income.
So, Lady Treasurer, kindly present a more realistic budget.
Shemeji, your life Chairman needs to be called Mugabe. Ambrose “Mugabe” Rachier
I agree.
On a different note , am the happiest football fan courtesy of the positive developments Afc’s Shikanda is bringing into Afc , and it is my prayer that he succeeds , I say so because a useless Afc is very bad for Gormahia but very good for the Pests ( excluding AR ) that are disguised as Officials of K’galo , because Gor only has to win a weak leopardless league and the officials are safe BUT a threatening Leopard would force the whole of the Gor Mahia fraternity including the EC and the Fanbase to wake up from their slumber , the intence competition would start seeing fans of both teams jamming the stadiums , it is good to note that when the rivalry between the two was intence and balanced , I would attend almost all Afc games to support the opponents , the same would happen with Afc fans attending all Gor Mahia matches .
In a nutshell , this Ingo’s manicured Leopard is what has brought about the lowering of the bar in Gor Mahia and the sooner Shikanda accomplishes his vision the better for us all , my only prayer to Ingo and all the Ingolets is that for Shikanda’s dream to mature , they should pray that the Opwora’s and Angulus come down with Serious Corona so that they are isolated and quarantined because with the return of sponsorship ,they are preparing to strike and with disastrous consequences.