The Kenya Footballers Welfare Association (KEFWA) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, held its 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM), where different stakeholders met and discussed issues affecting the football players and way forward.
The 12th anniversary of Kefwa AGM saw the attendance of Coach Robert Matano, former Harambee stars Coach Ghost Mulei, who graced the occasion and advised young players to be disciplined and determined with Passion too.
Various topics were also highlighted, including smart ways of investing for the football players, enrolling in academic careers once the players were near to retire, or even earlier, players’ rights and remuneration.
“We have had a couple of strides since 2012, I guess, and, you know, it has been a journey of so many challenges that concerns the players. But we are so happy because we were once observers, then we were candidates, and then now we are fully members, full members at FIFPro, who are our donors, who always guide us, give us direction on how we can fight for the rights of the players.
So I can say we have a couple of strides, of course, with so many challenges.
But again, we have so many positives, so many wins, whereby we have seen, we have come up with so many products on board
to see how players can maybe transit from playing football and how we can represent players legally around the country, even the professional players.
So I think in many ways, we have many products that we have really helped the players, even bridge the Gap.” Said James Situma KEFWA President.
KEWA President further observed that, it’s one step at a time and believes, we need to come together as players to make sure that we strengthen the union so that we can have that bigger voice to champion for their rights.Players are so frustrated with the current situation that they are not being paid by their current teams. it’s frustrating at times when you are not. Maybe you don’t have something to put on the table for your family.They should still continue boarding and make sure that we continue having that strong voice so that we can voice out because when we are together, I think moving one direction, it will be okay.
Meantime, as we speak, of course, what we really need is to have one voice because election is coming up, you know, we’ll have people walking left, right and center, maybe, you know, promising events.
So, we’ll be so careful, we will involve them 100 per cent in any decision we make.
“When you look at KEFWA, they have professionalized everything, and there are proper structures with good management that look into issues of Players.
Kenyan Premier league can be classified as semi-professional, and the rights of players need to be looked into.
Our neighbours, Tanzania Yanga and Simba, have moved ahead due to proper infrastructure and sponsorship consistency.
Kenya Federation of Football has moved a step further, but there are more strides needed.” Said Innocent Mutiso Doping Control Officer at (ADAK) Anti Doping Agency of Kenya.
KEFWA, who are in partnership with Zetech University, are encouraging football Players to also double in academic qualification in order to better their lives.
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