Football
Exclusive: Inside AFC Leopards' Dream to Dominate Continental Football
AFC Leopards aim to transform into a corporate entity to dominate continental football and compete in the FIFA Club World Cup. The club’s task force is leading the commercialization efforts, inspired by success stories like Simba and Yanga in Tanzania.
Image Credits: Pepeta
Kenyan Premier League giants AFC Leopards are aiming to change their governance structure in a bid to dominate continental football and make regular appearances at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Over the past month, Leopards have been laying the groundwork for the long-overdue commercialization of the club, the first for a community-owned outfit in the country should they succeed.
An eight-member task force to oversee the transition of the club from a community model to a corporate entity is already in place with discussions over the matter gathering momentum.
Their plan received a boost earlier in the week when Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and a long-term supporter of the club donated Kshs. 2 million to the kitty.
The allure of attracting multiple external investors and cutting over-reliance on the community and politicians is viewed as one of the reasons behind the intended transformation.
However, the task force insists that the transition is primarily aimed at achieving sporting excellence, which has been elusive at the den for decades.
Eyes on continental success
The secretary to the task force, Richard Ekhalie says the long-term objective of transitioning Leopards to a limited company is to dominate continental football and be the first Kenyan team to feature in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Ekhalie says the finances the club will generate from selling shares to investors will enable the technical bench to assemble a strong squad that will dominate continental football.
“We want to become a football club to be reckoned with across the continent. The aim is to become the team to beat in Africa and gather points that will allow us to play in the World Cup regularly,” he told SportsBoom.com.
Two tickets to continental football are always at stake for Kenyan clubs every season, unlike in other countries where clubs fight for four slots.
Winning the league automatically guarantees a club a place in the Champions League while the Mozzart Bet Cup is the license to the Confederation Cup.
Ekhalie understands that Leopards have an uphill task of breaking their title jinx and dominating Kenyan football.
Ingwe last won the league and Mozzart Bet Cup titles in 1998 and 2017, respectively.
We have a huge task ahead of us, as the path to continental football is clear. We must first win the domestic competitions, which has not been the case for some time.
Ingwe
Why benchmarking in Tanzania is key
In the interest of picking lessons from clubs that have successfully transitioned, the task force is expected to benchmark in Tanzania early next month.
The members are expected to compare notes with Simba and Yanga, who have achieved remarkable success since taking the corporate route.
Yanga reached the Confederation Cup final last season while Simba have been gracing the group stages of the Champions League for a while.
“We have witnessed Simba and Yanga make big strides from the time they attracted external investors. We have seen the two clubs soar to great heights as far as continental football is concerned and that’s why we want to learn from them. The lessons we will gather from them will help us with the transition and manage it well,” said Ekhalie.
Leopards determined to get it right this time round
This is not the first attempt Leopards are making attempts to transform the club into a limited company.
The previous efforts have been flopping but there appears to be concerted efforts from all quarters to make it happen.
Ekhalie says that involving all stakeholders, including the 10,000 registered members, 80 branches, and 6 million fans, and factoring in their views is a key ingredient to the success of the plan.
The former Leopards Chief Executive Officer says lack of civic education on the matter contributed to its failure in the previous attempts and hence a different approach this year.
“We failed in previous years because we did not engage with and educate our fans on the matter comprehensively. We will approach things differently in the next five months to ensure that everyone understands the pros and cons of the deal before the AGM. We appreciate that our fans have a good understanding of the matter, having seen its success in Tanzania,” he added.
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