March 25 – Kenyan football has been plunged into further crisis after FIFA over-ruled a local judgement that threw out the national federation’s entire executive.
Last week, the country’s Sports Disputes Tribunal ruled that the current Kenyan Football Federation (FKF) regime were in office illegally and had to vacate as their term had ended.
The tribunal also called for a formation of a normalisation committee to undertake FKF’s roles including organising fresh elections.
But FIFA have intervened by quashing the ruling and stating the judgement was not legally binding, reinstating the FKF Executive Committee including the current president Nick Mwendwa (pictured).
In a letter to FKF CEO Barry Otieno published by local media, FIFA argued that the SDT was not recognised as a body to settle the dispute.
“First and foremost, we would like to highlight that the FKF statutes do not expressly recognize the jurisdiction of SDT as being the ultimate arbitration forum at the national level,” read FIFA’s letter
“Moreover, we note that the SDT in not a national arbitration tribunal…. we wish to emphasise that the relevant SDT ruling has no legal effect on FIFA.”
FKF presidential aspirant Omondi Aduda hit back by declaring: “FIFA is just creating confusion for no reason, and that is very wrong. They have forbidden us from taking sports issues to civil courts and then disregarding rulings from sports courts. So, what next?”
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