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Fifa back in the country for league mediation talks


Football Kenya Federation (FKF) officials are expected to maintain a hardline stance against their Kenyan Premier League counterparts, during the latest Fifa supervised mediation talks, which are aimed at unlocking the stalemate between the two factions over the management of the top flight league.

The impasse between the two bodies has resulted into parallel top flight leagues;  the Kenyan Premier League and Football Kenya Federation Premier League.

The two competitions have been running concurrently since last month, a move that is against the Fifa laws.

Fifa and FKF officials met for the fourth time in as many months at the Menengai room in Norfolk Hotel on Sunday morning, with sources suggesting the latter are keen on stamping their authority as the bona fide administrators of all football matters in the country.

“That meeting will only be guided by the Fifa and FKF statutes, which recognize the federation as the only body mandated to oversee and supervise football activities in the country,” a FKF official told Nairobi News.

JOINT MEETING

Fifa’s delegation in Nairobi for this talks is led by Ghana FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi, who is assisted the institution’s Head of Associations Primo Carvaro, together with Africa’s Development officer Ashford Mamelodi.

FKF is represented by a full house led by Chairman Sam Nyamweya, his deputy Robert Asembo, the entire National Executive Committee, and CEO Micheal Esakwa who was spotted carrying volumes of files into the meeting.

The Fifa threesome also have an appointment against the KPL officials at the same venue on Monday at 9am. FKF are however said to be against that meeting, with suggestions that the entity was “outlawed” by a special general meeting held in Kakamega in January.

The three teams are then expected to jointly meet on Tuesday morning, from where the future of the Kenyan top flight football competition could be determined.

One of the tasks awaiting the Fifa team is how to marry the two separate contractual obligations by television rights broadcast holders to manage the same competition.

KPL has an agreement with SuperSport, whilst FKF unveiled a separate contract with Azam TV last week. Both agreements are worth close to a billion shillings.