Kenyan Champions Gor Mahia are in talks to secure a second sponsor that will add on what betting firm Sportpesa are giving to support the club. Club Chairman, Ambrose Rachier, has however said that the new sponsorship deal is not because they are barred from donning Sportpesa branded jerseys in the CAF confederation cup tournament.
During their fixture against Zamalek on Sunday, Gor donned jerseys without sponsor’s logo as they were barred by Confederaton of African Football (CAF) from doing so. CAF disallowed clubs sponsored by Sportpesa from wearing Sportpesa jerseys because they (Sportpesa) are competitors of tournament sponsors IXBet. A CAF statement sent on Friday warned teams that are sponsored by other betting firms apart from IXBet not to wear jerseys potraying logos of heir sponsors.
“In case your club did not submit a different sponsor then they will be playing the matches of the Confederation Cup 2019 without any publicity on the jerseys of the players,” the Caf statement read in part. Tanzania’s Simba SC also played their Caf Champions league group game against Al Ahly of Egypt on Saturday without SportPesa-branded kits. The ban has been enforced to protect the economic interests of one of the tournament’s sponsors, IXBet.
Despite an annual injection of Ksh. 66 million to the club by Sportpesa, Gor still need Ksh. 35 million to honour CAF confederation cup group stage fixtures. “We are however in talks with another sponsor who is coming on board with some amount, we are hopeful to finalize the deal this week,” Rachier told Nation Sport.
Even though CAF blocked teams from donning jerseys showing other betting firms’ logo, their official website still shows French oil and gas company Total and selling partner QNET as the main sponsors of their competitions as of Monday. This hints that the deal with IXBet might have been signed very recently.
1 Comment