Fifa hands Nick Mwendwa a lifeline -and a dressing down
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa and his National Executive Committee (NEC) have been granted an extended stay in office by Fifa after the world football governing body on Wednesday trashed a recent ruling by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT).
Fifa has also turned down a proposal by SDT chairman John Ohaga to form a normalisation committee to manage Kenyan football in the interim on the premise that Mwendwa’s term of office had expired.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the current FKF Executive Committee members including its president shall remain in office,” Fifa’s letter, which was signed off by Chief Member Associations Officer, Veron Mosengo-Omba said.
Fifa also faulted FKF for subjecting itself to the SDT.
“The FKF has surprisingly subjected to the SDT by its own initiative while it was not obliged to do so as per its own Statues. This, however, does not entail that the SDT decisions are binding on Fifa when it comes to prerogatives and remit for which the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in Laussane, Switzerland has exclusive competence (cf. art. 57 and 58 of Fifa Statuts, 2019 edition). Therefore we wish to emphasize that the relevant SDT ruling has no legal effect on Fifa.”
Monsengo-Omba has further taken issue with a decision by the Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to snub a meeting with Fifa officials that was aimed at resolving this impasse.