Kenya Rugby Union are contemplating withdrawing Lionesses and Morans from the Dubai Sevens Invitational tournament due to lack of funds.
The two teams are meant to accompany the national men's team, Shujaa, who will be in Dubai for the opening leg of the World Rugby Series next week.
Kenya have until tomorrow to confirm their availability.
Under the Invitational tour rules, teams are expected to cater for their transport, accommodation and other logistics, such as medical services, making it hard for KRU to meet such budgets.
KRU vice-chairman Thomas Opiyo said they have approached the Sports Fund, through the Ministry of Sports, seeking at least Sh6m to allow them to send the two teams to Dubal, in vain.
“At the moment, we just have an agreement with the technical bench and the players and we don’t know how long it will last, they do understand our situation but for how long, you can only push someone for so long,” Opiyo said.
At the start of the season, the Union presented a budget of Sh276m for the entire season to the government for all the squads but was reduced to Sh194m after they declared the amount they receive from sponsors and World Rugby.
However, there has been no update on whether the amount they requested for will be advanced and so, when.
According to Opiyo, Kenya faces the risk of missing out on future invitations if they don’t honour the Dubai Tour. The Lionesses were to use the tournament to prepare for the IRB Sevens qualifiers set for next year in Hong Kong as well the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo Japan.
KRU has been engaging several sponsors over financing national squads but treasurer Joshua Aroni says this has been difficult for them due to the current economic crisis in the country.
The Union has been without a major sponsor since Sportpesa withdrew their sponsorship.
Opiyo further revealed the National squads are currently on arrears totalling Sh18m, while the technical bench hasn’t been paid as well.
