Back with begging bowl? AFC Leopards turn to fans & well-wishers to help keep the club afloat

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Back with begging bowl? AFC Leopards turn to fans & well-wishers to help keep the club afloat

Joel Omotto 08:00 - 23.08.2024

AFC Leopards have called on their supporters and well-wishers to come to their rescue as they face financial challenges ahead of the new season.

AFC Leopards are now asking well-wishers to come to their rescue as they face a budget deficit ahead of the new Premier League season.

Ingwe have a budget of Ks150 million for the 2024-25 campaign but are not able to fund it in its entirety, hence the need for some external help.

According to club chairman Dan Shikanda, the club’s budget has ballooned due to the fact that unlike before, they will be managing three teams; being the men’s senior side, the women’s team as well as Leopards Youth.

Leopards Women gained promotion to the FKF Women’s Premier League and will need substantial resources to run.

“We had a budget of Ksh120 million for the senior team alone last year but we require Ksh150 million for the new season to be financially stable,” Shikanda said at the club’s first-ever end of the season gala on Wednesday, as quoted by Nation.

“Currently, we don’t have that kind of money to meet our expenditure and we are appealing to our fans, leaders and well-wishers to step out and assist the team.”

Leopards financial report for 2023 released by secretary general Gilbert Andugu in June indicated the club generated Ksh103,167,127 last year compared to Ksh67,423,245 in 2022.

However, the increase in revenue also saw a major jump in costs, leaving Leopards in the red as they made a loss of Ksh8,596,663 in the year 2023 after generating a profit of Ksh5,185,576 in 2022.

Ingwe’s main cash streams are the three-year sponsorship deal with betting firm Betika worth Ksh65 million per year, gate collections, the Azam TV broadcast deal signed last year as well as player sales although they have not made a major sale in recent windows.