The league defending champions have been defeated on six occasions leading to rumours of possible outside influence
Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier has revealed Fifa enquired about possible match-fixing occurrences at the Football Kenya Federation Premier League club.
K’Ogalo have lost six games after playing 14 and their poor form raised questions regarding possible cases of match-fixing. Rachier has stated although Fifa wrote a letter through FKF, he affirmed they have no evidence to back up the claims.
“I recently got a letter from the federation saying that they have been asked by Fifa to find out if there is match-fixing at Gor Mahia,” Rachier told The Standard.
“I’ve replied and said there is no match-fixing at Gor Mahia; we have no evidence and it’s not happening.”
Recently, there were claims that the club owes the chair money to the tune of Ksh100 million but the experienced lawyer and football administrator has denied it.
“I regret to say that this is something that I heard about on Sunday evening,” he said. “I was told that there are claims the club owes me Ksh100 million. That’s not true and I don’t have an idea where that information came from.”
Rachier also said the current suspension of the FKF Premier League could force players to leave their clubs and seek greener pastures elsewhere.
“I don’t understand how Tanzania could be going on with their league and with full attendance of fans. I believe it is the same situation in Uganda, Zambia and Ethiopia,” he said.
“We are literally surrounded by neighbours whose leagues are going on. The question now is, why Kenya? Maybe we must be having the most serious curve of the pandemic which I don’t know. And that’s what puzzles me a lot.
“Of course, the tendencies of trying to move where the leagues are going on is high. So, we do face a great risk of losing these players because they are better off joining other clubs where there are activities and payment.”
The chair further gave an update regarding the future of head coach Carlos Vaz Pinto, who rumours have indicated, could leave due to financial issues.
“Well, the coach, Vaz Pinto, is very settled and only waiting for the season to resume,” concluded Rachier. “As far as our foreign players are concerned, there is a lot of uncertainty because most of them were caught up in the lockdown after they went back to their countries during the international window break.
“The lockdown was declared before they returned and we don’t know how long they will remain there.”
Further reports had indicated Wilson Silva, Jules Ulimwengu and Tito Okello are also considering ditching the local giants.
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