Will giants AFC Leopards finally own a stadium after 60 years of hiring?
Over in Tanzania, the club founded as Mzizima Football Club in 2004 and is now known as Azam Sports Club have their own 10,000 seater stadium, the Azam Complex situated in Chamazi, Temeke, in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, which they started using in 2010.
While it took Azam just six years to build a full-fledged facility that has seen them successfully host international matches recognized by world governing body FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) without a hitch, AFC Leopards had nothing to their name besides trophies they have won, as they celebrated their 60th anniversary on Sunday.
Land gifted by President Moi
The story of AFC Leopards - dubbed ‘Ingwe’ - owning a stadium did not just start today. First, the club benefitted from a 20-acre piece of land donated by the late President Daniel Arap Moi adjacent to Moi Kasarani Stadium over 30 years ago. Their rivals Gor Mahia also benefitted from the deal as they received a similar gift.
During the anniversary held at Nyayo Stadium, which was attended by Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto, a section of fans questioned why the team’s management was yet to capitalise on the available land and construct an ultra-modern facility to help the team minimise their expenses.
“When I was part of the management, we usually had to part with Ksh20,000 to secure a training facility daily and then hire the match venue for ranging from Ksh70,000 to even Ksh100,000 if we had settled to play at either Nyayo or Kasarani in the City,” former official Suleiman Angulu told Flashcore News.
“It is something we were opposed to because the fee for the two activities could be enough to settle other expenses but again the fact remained we did not have our facility to rely on.”
Shame to not own a stadium
Since the donation of the land, AFC Leopards have witnessed a changing of the guard at the helm multiple times, with most of the officials campaigning on the promise of fulfilling the construction of the stadium. Yet none of the regimes at the Den delivered.
Ingwe chairman Dan Shikanda, who is enjoying a second term in office, admitted it was a disgrace for the mighty club to be 60 years old but without a place to call their own.
“It is unfortunate that 60 years down the line, and even after being donated with land, we still don’t have the most crucial infrastructure that we as a club were supposed to be having,” the former international told Flashscore News.
In June 2020, while Shikanda was serving his first term in office, politician Musalia Mudavadi, who is associated with the club, and the current Prime Cabinet Secretary in the expanded role of Foreign & Diaspora Affairs Minister of Kenya, donated Ksh633,000 to help clear accrued land rates.
“I have personally donated a cheque worth Ksh633,000 to AFC Leopards to help the club pay for the stand premium and charges to have their land processed,” Mudavadi wrote on his social media pages.
“This will enable them to have a permanent home. We hope they can now build a sporting complex that can become a centre of pride for the sporting fraternity in this country,” he added.
Does the land still exist?
According to Shikanda, the land is still intact despite reports that it had been grabbed, and the monies from Mudavadi were used to clear the rates.
“The land is still intact, there is nothing (any construction) that has been put up there, and the land has not been grabbed. When I came into office, my first assignment was to try and see whether the land is still there, we went to the lands office and found the land was there, still empty and a property of the AFC,” explained Shikanda.
“We have done the paperwork, we have paid for the standard premium, and as we speak we have been trying to push to get a title deed, and we could not get it but have decided to go for a lease. Plans are at an advanced stage to make sure everything is completed.”
Shikanda is confident the embarrassment of AFC not owning a stadium will soon be a thing of the past since they have already notified the government of their intentions to start the project.
“Let me not pre-empt a lot of things, I am sure in the next few months, one or two months, everything will be finalised. We have actually brought these to the attention of the highest office and like I just said, plans are underway to complete these and start the project,” said Shikanda.
He concluded: “We pay Ksh20,000 per day to train, and on a rainy season like now, such venues are not available, we can only access Kasarani Annex which we have to pay Ksh40,000, so these are some of the things we want to do away with and use own our facility.”
Only time will tell if Shikanda will deliver and leave a legacy by the time he vacates office at the end of his tenure.