What The FIFA Ban Mean For Football In Kenya

Kenya’s suspension from all football activities has been ratified on Thursday March 31 during the world football governing body Fifa’s congress meeting in Qatar.

On February 24, Fifa president Gianni Infantino during a council meeting said that the council had found Kenya and Zimbabwe’s issues to be a clear case of undue interference by a third party.

“Therefore, based on article 14 paragraphs 1 and 3 of the FIFA Statutes – as well as article 16 paragraph 1, under which the FIFA Council may, without a vote of the Congress, temporarily suspend with immediate effect a member association that seriously violates its obligations, the Fifa Council decided to suspend the FKF with immediate effect due to flagrant violations of the FIFA Statutes,” Infantino said.

In November last year, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed suspended the entire FKF secretariat and executive members citing financial impropriety and also ordered for the locking of the secretariat offices, which is against the Fifa statutes on grounds of government interference.

Fifa Secretary General Fatma Samoura went ahead to write to all its member associations informing them about the developments indicating that the action meant that FKF loses all its membership rights, as defined in article 13 of the FIFA Statutes, with immediate effect and until further notice.

The move by world football governing body means that neither the FKF nor any of its members or officials may benefit from any development programmes, courses or training from FIFA and/or CAF.

Equally,the national team Harambeee Stars and local clubs will not be eligible to participate in any of the FIFA sanctioned competitions including CAF Champions or Confederations leagues, Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers.

Other counties who were also suspended indefinitely during the 72nd Congress were Zimbabwe and Pakistan

A total of 198 member nations voted in support of the suspension with only one disapproving the decision.