By Mark Baber
March 23 – A delegation tasked by FIFA with finding a solution to the Kenyan football crisis, including Ghana Football Association (GFA) president Kwesi Nyantakyi, development officer Ashford Mamelodi, and FIFA’s head of Member Associations Primo Carvaro has arrived in Nairobi. A meeting which will include Kenya Football Federation (FKF) and Kenyan Premier League (KPL) officials is scheduled for Monday evening.
Whilst FKF president Sam Nyamweya (pictured) failed in his attempts to have KPL officials jailed and has seen the injunction against the KPL running their Premier League lifted, he is apparently proceeding with his plan to set up his own “top tier” league, with teams originally in the second tier, having reportedly agreed a deal, through media rights agency MP & Silva, for Azam TV of Tanzania – a PayTV broadcaster – to broadcast two matches a week of the new FKF Premier League. Azam TV, which has a presence in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and South Africa is reported in local media to be paying 202 million shillings for a three year deal with the aim of selling more of its decoder kits, of which it had reportedly sold 150,000 as of December 2014.
Nyantakyi, speaking through the Ghanaian FA web site, said; “It is a big honour to be asked by FIFA to help mediate the crisis in Kenya football. It shows the work we have done has been recognised at the highest level.”
“I hope we can bring out experience bear on this issue to bring a lasting solution for Kenya football to enjoy some peace and progress.”
Kwesi is also reported to have said the FKF “will need to withdraw from court and submit to the authority from FIFA,” although earlier reports FIFA had ordered matters not be taken to court were scotched by FIFA executives in a letter to the FKF.
Kwesi is also reported to have said: “There is no particular solution because of the personal, political, commercial and legal interests involved. But we have an ultimatum to secure a way forward, obviously with the support of all Kenyans.”
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