Williamson wins his case in Kenya
Former Kilmarnock and Hibernian manager, Bobby Williamson, is set for a financial windfall.
The High Court in Kenya has criticised the country’s soccer bosses over their failure to honour the terms of their agreement with the Scot, who left his job as manager of the national team three-and-a-half years ago.
Williamson and his lawyers have pursued the matter and, on Thursday, an Employment and Labour Court froze three Football Kenya Federation bank accounts after upholding the 59-year-old’s case.
It states he is entitled to around £407,000 in compensation for wrongful dismissal.
The FKF has yet to pay a fine imposed by the High Court last year for refusing to settle with Williamson, who was in charge of the Kenyan team from August 2014 until February 2016.
He found out about his dismissal through the media, and has never been given a reason for it.
Now the FKF will have no access to their cash until such times as the debt is paid in full – and the court has the power to hand that money to Williamson.
“I could have appealed to FIFA, who have the power to prevent them from entering international competitions over something like this,” said Williamson, who still lives in Nairobi, and survived a cancer scare three years ago.
“But football is a short career, and I don’t want to prevent any of those lads from playing for their country because this isn’t their fault.
“That’s why I went down the route of taking them to the Kenyan employment court instead. I’ll let the law of the land sort it out and, meanwhile, the interest on that original sum is accruing every week.”
▪ Celtic keeper Ross Doohan yesterday sealed a one-year loan move to Ross County.
But the Scotland Under-21 cap has been warned he faces a three-way fight to claim the Dingwall club’s No. 1 jersey.
With Fraser Forster and Craig Gordon both departing Celtic Park this summer, 22-year-old Doohan had been forced to wait for his parent club to complete the £4.5-million capture of Greek international, Vasilis Barkas, before putting pen to paper for County.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon, though, allowed him to play as a trialist for County in last weekend’s friendly between the sides in Glasgow.
The fourth loan spell of Doohan’s young career – following stints at Cumbernauld Colts, Morton and for two seasons at Ayr United – presents him with the chance of a first taste of Premiership action.
But County manager Stuart Kettlewell will pitch the loanee against existing No.1 Ross Laidlaw, and young Ross Munro, in a straight fight for the gloves.
Kettlewell said: “It has been a bit of a waiting game for us and Ross, but we’re delighted to get the deal done.
“Celtic were great in giving us a chance to get Ross involved in our weekend game and that means he’s not coming in completely cold.
“He has met the group of the players and played 90 minutes of football.
“So he is ready to compete with the goalkeeper we already have here at the football club.
“We have a ‘what if?’ scenario for a lot of our guys, and the goalkeeping position is no different.”