With four months remaining to end his tenure, AFC Leopards chairman Dan Mule has opened up on his ferocious fights with external forces who have been pushing to have him ousted.
Mule claims that his three years at the helm have been marred by death threats, accusations of squandering the club’s resources, using unidentified players to fix matches and ethnic profiling aimed at elbowing him out of the club. After youthful Serbian coach Marko Vasiljevic tendered his resignation letter following last weekend’s 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Bandari, Mule was reported to be on the verge of following suit as pressure to get answers to the poor run escalated forcing him to lift the lid on his rough encounter with cartels who have wrecked havoc to his administration.
The never ending debacles at the club saw Mule earlier announce that he will not defend his seat in the elections slated for June but has maintained that despite the massive influence by the cartels, he will run out his contract with the club. The soft spoken administrator revealed that powerful individuals who have been opposing his leadership courtesy of his origin which is a mismatch to the cradle of the club have in the past conspired with a number of players to fix matches and later have him blamed for the club’s two decade premier league drought.
This allegation comes a time when Kenyan football has been rocked by match fixing claims with Kakamega Homeboyz and former Harambee Stars players already implicated in the menace. Mule claims that the cartels have been giving players money to dish out comfortable wins to their opponents and disclosed that he had launched investigations to unearth the identity of the players. Through a telephone interview, Mule who is in Zambia, said he will not be cowed by threats and will remain at the helm till his term comes to a close.
“There have been rumours within the playing unit that a number of players have conspired with cartels to lose matches in a bid to get rid of me. I have since launched investigations into the matter. There have been rumours that I have resigned but I want to make it clear that I will not leave office until my term expires in June.”
Last year in October, a group led by the former chairman Mathew Oporwa claimed to have taken over leadership of the club although on interim basis for three months with elections set to be held last month. However, the plan did not succeed.
Mule disclosed said he has been accused of using the shirt sponsorship money from betting firm, SportPesa to build a luxurious house in Karen but he laughed off the claims, stating that he had already finished building the house two years prior to his election as the club’s chairman