FOOTBALL: Long serving chairman James Situma lays bare KEFWA plight

Situma was re-elected president of the Kenya Footballers Welfare Association last week

Former AFC Leopards, Sofapaka, Tusker and Harambee Stars defender James Situma has revealed the challenges of being president of the Kenya Footballers Welfare Association (KEFWA).

Situma was reelected president of the organization which aims at looking after the welfare of Kenyan footballers unopposed this weekend.

Speaking to Radull Live, the former defender spoke about the challenges that come with representing the players’ welfare and gave his recommendations as to how such issues can be abated as he prepares for another term in office.

“At KEFWA, our main aim is to represent players’ legal and contractual matters,” he said, “but in our country where there are large financial difficulties, we face a lot of challenges,” he added.

“This needs a collective responsibility to make sure we manage it because we have new generations coming up and they cannot find us in the same mess.

“We train them on capacity building and several issues but once they sign for the clubs, we do not have control over them because we are not employees and different clubs have different contractual obligations and their structures are different.

“We try our level best to ensure they are given attention but again, the main issue is financial but money has been there before and it goes back to management.”

“ How can we help them before they come to the top? Do they have knowledge? We have to go to the lower leagues to ensure we capacity build there and give them knowledge on what happens at the top.

“Maybe for some of them, it is the first time to see and sign contracts, so we have to enlighten them because there are fake agents, for example, some in the media industry who are not trained and registered as agents who may deceive.”

Situma says KEFWA are trying to make Kenyan football become more professional in order to help resolve contractual disputes and other numerous challenges.

“We have to professionalize everything, which is one of the aims of KEFWA. All this desire for quick solutions and shortcuts does not help.

“As a player,you have to honor your contract because you are working for the club and the club also has to honor your contract, but alot of parties do not do that.

‘One of the biggest challenges we encounter is that a player may come to us saying that his dues have not been paid, and we help in filing a legal case to defend them, but the clubs then decide to pay some of the money to the players behind our (KEFWA’s) back.

“Two years ago, one of the teams owed at least seven players dues, with the player with least dues being owed half a million kenyan shillings. So the club paid them in half and they signed, despite having filed a case to the player status committee, and they even gave us a mentioned (hearing) date.

‘On the day we went there, we were given a rude shock as the club CEO said he had no idea as the players had been paid and the agreements signed, and it left us looking like fools.”

Situma believes footballers must educate themselves better and avoid ignorance in order to avoid running into such problems in future. He has also advised local players to register with the organization in order to help them when they face contractual obstacles with their clubs in future.

“The ignorance from the players is alarming as well. We always go to the players and tell them the importance of joining the associations as well as how to handle details of their contracts.

“The players ignore giving excuses like having errands to run and they fail to register as members, but they come to us three weeks later saying that the teams have released them. It gave us an idea that we will be giving the registered members priority before them, as much as we will help them.