NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 9 – The weight of the athletics world in battling the rising cases of doping has seemingly transmitted to football, where the top leagues in the country are dealing with its own equivalent of the drug-cheating vice, match fixing.
On Wednesday, top tier side Mathare United announced the suspension of two of the club’s experienced players, Lennox Ogutu and Alphonce Ndonye due to suspected match fixing.
The two rejoined Mathare at the start of the start of the season, Ogutu having spent a season at City Stars while Ndonye was at Kakamega Homeboyz.
The Slum Boys have had a torrid start to the season, winning only twice, while they have conceded above three goals in five of their 12 matches.
“Sincerely believing our players and team were far better than the results for most of our matches so far this year, MUFC management launched discrete investigations and then shared our findings and concerns with FKF,” a statement from the team reads.
It adds; “Late Monday afternoon that led to the immediate suspension by our club and by FKF of two key MUFC players for suspected match-fixing: our veteran midfielder Alphonse Ndonye and key central defender Lennox Ogutu.”
The Football Kenya Federation has also acted to suspend the two from any footballing activities, as they also conduct their own investigations.
There has been rampant claims of match fixing the Kenyan Premier League and the Federation says it is doing all it can to contain the spread.
According to sources within the Federation, there are many cases of alleged match fixing under investigations. The source further intimates that the net casts wide, including officials, referees as well as club officials.
“The problem is rampant honestly and the cases are too many and it is a bit worrying. There are so many people involved and if nothing is done, then our game will suffer this season,” the source stated.
The match fixing problem has been made worse by the financial state in the league, where most teams are without sponsors and fixers are taking advantage by offering lucrative perks to their muses.
The league currently does not have a title nor a broadcast partner, meaning less financial windfall for clubs.
