AFC Leopards feel they have been treated unfairly by the world football governing body, Fifa, which has ordered the club to pay a sizable amount of money to their former foreign players as compensation for breach of contract.

Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda said Rwandese Vincent Abamahoro and Burundian Tresor Ndikumana played truancy in the team and as such have no basis to demand their dues.

Abamahoro and Ndikumana, who have been awarded Sh1.7 million and Sh2.2 million respectively by Fifa, terminated their contracts with Ingwe in December 2020 over an alleged heated pay dispute.

But Shikanda denied the claims, saying the duo breached the code of conduct of the team by absconding duty.

“The fact is that these two were run-away players who gave the technical bench officials a difficult task of tracing their whereabouts.

They never returned to the team and I’m surprised that they went to Fifa accusing us of defaulting to pay them,” said Shikanda. 

However, Shikanda said Leopards have no choice but to comply with the decision by Fifa to pay the players but was quick to add that the team will act with more caution in future

“This is a big lesson we have learned moving forward but that does not mean we will do away with the foreign players. We will continue working with them alongside the local ones,” said Shikanda.