By Mark Baber
November 27 – Tensions between the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and Kenyan Premier League (KPL) are escalating over the expansion of the country’s top league from 16 to 18 teams, with the FKF insisting clubs register directly with them before December 15 or face being replaced.
According to the FKF: “The decision to increase number of clubs taking part in KPL from 16 to 18 is final and irreversible and have directed all 18 Premier League clubs, National Super League clubs and Division One clubs to register with FKF by December 15, 2014, as per provisions of the Constitution Article 10, failure to which the clubs will cease to be our members and will immediately be replaced as we will not relent on our efforts of developing and promoting the game of football since that is our core mandate.”
The KPL had rejected the change on Tuesday, saying in a statement: “The federation National Executive Committee (NEC), which made decision to increase number of teams to 18, was not properly constituted as members of Division One and KPL representatives have never been invited to the meetings as required by Constitution and has on several occasions made decisions outside Judicial Process contrary to its own Constitution.”
The state of relations between the two bodies can be judged from FKF President Sam Nyamweya’s response; “We are aware that KPL management are fighting for 16-team league in order to create an avenue for squandering more funds from sponsors and consequently the federation shall urgently conduct a forensic audit of KPL accounts for the last five years so as to ascertain how public funds have been used.”
Accusing the KPL of hijacking football activities in the country, Nyamweya insists that: “As per Article 2 (G) of our constitution, FKF controls, supervises all football matches and related activities throughout its territory and among its responsibilities and mandates is to promote and relegate teams at the end of each league.”
KPL clubs have told local media they will go ahead and register, despite considering they are already registered to the FKF through their membership of the KPL and have paid membership fees for this year.
With the purse strings for the KPL held by broadcasters SuperSport, club officials are hoping the FKF and KPL can sit down and sort their differences out amicably.
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