{"id":8380,"date":"2016-04-26T18:42:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T18:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=8380"},"modified":"2016-04-26T18:43:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T18:43:32","slug":"sportpesa-suspends-sponsorship-of-gor-mahia-and-afc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/sportpesa-suspends-sponsorship-of-gor-mahia-and-afc\/","title":{"rendered":"Sportpesa suspends sponsorship of Gor Mahia and AFC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/images\/sportpesa-logo.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"348\" \/><br \/>\nUnruly fans have once again put the club in a tight financial spot as betting firm sportpesa has announced the suspension of its sposorhip for Kenya&#8217;s two biggest clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting from futaa.com<\/p>\n<p>Betting firm SportPesa has announced its suspension of sponsorship for local football giants Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards.<\/p>\n<p>SportPesa Chief Executive Officer Ronald Karauri made the terse announcement on Tuesday afternoon at a high powered press briefing citing hooliganism which he said is tainting their brand.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Its not an easy decision but one which we have taken.Tough decisions at times force changes.We need to do something drastic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Karauri was\u00a0 flanked by FKF president Nick Mwendwa,KPL chief Jack Oguda and Supersport General Manager Auka Gecheo.<\/p>\n<p>FKF on its part announced that clubs that perpetrate hooliganism will from now henceforth suffer heavy penalties including relegation for repeat offenders ,monetary fines and docking of points amongst others.<\/p>\n<p>While issuing the statement, Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri termed it as unfortunate that it had come down to the tough decision hence placing the stakeholders under such circumstances but insisisted that it was time we do something to curb hooliganism which the company fully supports.<\/p>\n<p>However his statement had a lifeline for the clubs with an indication that the package may be reinstated as soon as possible depending on the two club\u2019s official meetings with the company.<\/p>\n<p>Meeting<\/p>\n<p>-We have summoned the officials of the teams to meet within the week and we will reinstate this sponsorship once we are satisfied that actions are being taken to curb this vice that has gripped football, he said.<\/p>\n<p>-Sponsors will not just sit back and watch as our brand is tarnished. I think we have done so much to enhance security but all these will be in vain if the teams cannot control the fans, he added.<\/p>\n<p>In the presser, the Football Kenya Federation [FKF] also stipulated rules to curb hooliganism in the country with Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri referring to the Saturday 16th April\u2019s match pitting Gor Mahia away to Tusker FC at the Nyayo National Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>On the stated match day, the match was forced to stop for a moment after referee awarded the Brewers a penalty and the match pitting AFC Leopards against Ulinzi Stars on Saturday 23rd April where fans\u2019 protest forced match officials to call it a day on the match\u2019s 80th minute.<\/p>\n<p>The sponsorship for both teams (AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia) were to run for five years from 2016.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/sportpesa-suspends-sponsorship-of-gor-mahia-and-afc\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground:  !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unruly fans have once again put the club in a tight financial spot as betting firm sportpesa has announced the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8383,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380\/revisions\/8383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}