The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has issued a circular stating clubs that have been reported to have breached contractual agreements will not be allowed continental championships from next season.
In a letter to member associations signed by Deputy Secretary General Football and Development Anthony Bafoe, CAF said: “We would like to draw your attention to the fact that CAF continues to receive a large number of complaints concerning overdue payables towards Players and Coaches (former and current), as well as overdue payables towards Clubs resulting from transfer activities. Therefore, you are kindly requested to remind all your clubs who are participating in CAF Men’s and Women’s Interclubs Competitions 2021/22 season (Licensees), that they must ensure that they do not have any open cases of overdue payables.”
“The license applicant must prove that it has no payables overdue (final and binding decisions of the FIFA Players’ Status Committee, the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, the Court for Arbitration for Sport, etc.) towards football clubs arising from transfer activities as at 31 December 2020, unless by the following 31 March they have been fully settled, deferred by mutual agreement with the creditor or are subject a not obviously unfounded dispute, submitted to competent authority.”
“The license applicant must prove that, in respect of contractual and legal obligations with its current and former employees (including all professional players according to the applicable FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players and the general manager, the finance officer, the security officer, the medical doctor, the physiotherapist, the head coach of first squad, the head of youth development program and the youth coaches) has no payables overdue towards employees and social/tax authorities as at 31 December 2020, unless by the following 31 March they have been fully settled, deferred by mutual agreement with the creditor or are subject a not obviously unfounded dispute, submitted to competent authority.”
CAF further said it would sanction any member association that breaches licencing regulations.
“If CAF realises that a licensor issued a licence in breach of the national licensing regulations, the relevant association shall be sanctioned by CAF disciplinary committee in accordance with the disciplinary code or other relevant regulations of CAF.”
The new directive comes at a time when Kenya's top two clubs Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards are likely to earn tickets to represent the country I'm the CAF Interclubs competitions next season.
The two clubs meet in the Betway FKF Cup final on July 4 and both are in the race to winning the BetKing Premier League title.
However, a dark cloud of failing to pay their former players as per the contractual agreements still haunts them and this might have a great impact to their chances of representing the country in continental assignments.
Reigning champions Gor Mahia have cases petitioned at Fifa for failing to pay accrued salaries to former coach Stephen Pollack and former player Jackson Owusu.
In February, the club were punished by Fifa after they were banned from signing new players for a failure to pay Tanzanian player Dickson Ambundo.
Ambundo was demanding Ksh1.2million from the club and Fifa warned the club that failure to settle the fines within 45 days upon the delivery of that judgement, they will be barred from engaging in the transfer window.
There are reports new sanctions have been levelled on the club for failing to pay Ugandan defender Shafique Batambuze.
AFC Leopards on the other hand have been ordered to pay their former coach Andre Casa Mbungo Ksh.6 million for breach of contract. The club was also banned from signing players for two transfer windows after failing to settle Rwandan midfielder Vincent Habamahoro’s dues, totaling Ksh1.8 million, as directed by the world football governing body.
CAF has however said clubs can negotiate with the owed employees a payment plan to be licenced.
“Payables are not considered overdue if the debtor club is able to prove by the relevant time it has paid the relevant amount in full; or it has concluded an agreement which has been accepted in writing by the creditor to extend the deadline for payment beyond the applicable deadline.”