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Seven KPL teams risk relegation for non-compliance of club licensing


Seven Kenyan Premier League clubs risks being relegated from the top-tier league should they fail to beat Friday’s extended Caf Club Licensing deadline.

The seven – Posta Rangers, Western Stima, Mathare United, Muhoroni Youth, Sony Sugar, Sofapaka and Thika United – failed to beat the Monday deadline but were handed a four days extension.

The deadline will elapse at noon on Friday for the affected clubs to resubmit their documents for scrutiny to the Club Licensing Committee chaired by Prof Edwin Wamukoya.

At a press briefing with reporters at Kandanda House, FKF’s headquarters on Thursday, federation Chief Nick Mwendwa said that they’ll be left with no choice should the affected clubs fail to comply.

National Super League champions Nzoia United may also lose their new found KPL status as they have also failed to meet the bare minimum threshold which may lock them out of the 2017 season.

SPIRIT OF FAIRNESS

Mwendwa said: “When we realised that we have seven clubs which have not been issued with provisional licenses, the federation’s Emergency Committee in the spirit of fairness met on Monday and passed a resolution to give the clubs an extension to re-submit their documents by Friday noon.”

Mwendwa said that the affected clubs have been informed of what made them fail to meet the criteria and the repercussions.

The Licensing Committee will meet on January 3 to relook at the re-submitted documents and make a report to FKF’s NEC the following day.

The NEC will then make a formal communication to KPL to constitute the 2017 SportPesa Premier League as it “should be” and guided by the number of clubs which will have complied.

Mwendwa said that should the eight clubs fail to meet the requirements, the top tier league competition may have less than 16 teams.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Mwendwa added that the aggrieved clubs will have an option of filing an appeal at the FKF’s Appeal’s Committee within 13 days after the Club Licensing Committee makes its final submissions.

The compliance deadline for the second tier league is January 31, though Nzoia, by virtue of their promotion to KPL, must beat Friday’s deadline.

Apart from Nzoia, Oserian is the other team from the second division yet to comply while Tusker and Ulinzi Stars are the only clubs which have fully complied.

The two will represent Kenya in the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederations Cup respectively beginning February.

Top among the requirements are that clubs must prove their legal status (ownership) as well as their financials.

Clubs must also have in place management structures, a professionally run secretariat as well as full time coaches for senior and junior teams with at least Caf level C coaching licenses.