Nairobi News

SportsWhat's Hot

New battle ensues over the control of Kenyan football

By DAVID KWALIMWA September 2nd, 2016 1 min read

The long standing feud between Football Kenya Federation and a Nairobi based sports company has now spilled over to the courts.

On Friday, Extreme Sports Limited announced it had sued FKF’s chairman Nick Mwendwa and CEO Robert Muthomi at the High Court, following their decision to impose six year bans on match officials and administrators managing the grassroots leagues under its management.

Extreme Sports have the for past decade been organizing and facilitating the Super 8 Football league in Nairobi. The current edition of the competition kicked off last month despite several protests from FKF.

Last week, the national football body slapped these lengthy bans against Extreme Sports officials, in a move critics interpreted was fuelled by the rivalry, and aimed at barring Extreme Sports CEO Hussein Mohammed from contesting during the next FKF national elections in 2020.

SUSPENSIONS

But Extreme Sports head of operations Athanas Obala said the company has secured temporary injunctions against the suspension of both the competitions and managers.

“Due to the fact that FKF is not a sports organization under the Sports Act No. 25 of 2013, Extreme Sports Limited has taken legal action in the High Court (instead of the Sports Tribunal),” Obala said.

FKF insists Extreme Sports is organizing these competitions without consultations. Muthomi also argues that Extreme Sports competitions are being contested outside the available structural pyramids such as promotion and demotion of clubs.

However, Extreme’s decision to take the battle to the court could land them into more trouble, as it goes against the laws and statutes of world governing body Fifa.