Style up FKF, it makes no sense to ban a person who has retired
What you need to know:
- Of all the rules and regulations in the Fifa books, there is none more eerie, creepy, spine chilling and vindictive than that which gives certain people the power to ban others from “all football related activities” for a long stretch of time.
- Sometimes there are those so unfortunate to be banned for life from these activities.
- The football related activities that one is banned from are themselves not clear.
Of all the rules and regulations in the Fifa books, there is none more eerie, creepy, spine chilling and vindictive than that which gives certain people the power to ban others from “all football related activities” for a long stretch of time.
Sometimes there are those so unfortunate to be banned for life from these activities.
The football related activities that one is banned from are themselves not clear. We do not know what the proscribed person will suffer from if he is found to have indulged in football related activities while serving his term in the cold.
We do not know what happens if the said person decides to donate jerseys to some struggling team; is that team expected to run away from him like a leper just because they are afraid to relate with him in a football activity?
What if the debarred person goes to the stadium to watch football? Is that not a football related activity? What if he decides to pay for transport of a team that cannot afford to honour a tie - and such teams are legion in Kenya - will he have committed an offence worthy of a punishment to the careworn team?
What if he watches a football match on television? Will it be a misdemeanour to the gods of football?
We could pose as many scenarios as possible but we are in the dark about just what the football authorities will do to him if he or she breaks the interdict. It is only in this country that the vague law is used liberally.
It is a fatwa that every group in office uses to terrorise those out of it and are feared. It is thrown around so often such that it ceases to be even amazing.
Last week, the Football Kenya Federation banned the former president of the association in the said manner. Sam Nyamweya must have taken the prohibition with a pinch of salt and it must have hurt his feelings in a way that we may not be able to describe.
The former president was barred from “all football related activities” for a period of 10 years for taking football matters to an ordinary court.
In February 2017, Nyamweya moved to court seeking an injunction to bar FKF from interfering with the running of the country’s top tier, Kenya Premier League following a tussle between KPL and FKF over the composition, structure and number of teams in the competition.
Trouble started when FKF relegated Muhoroni Youth and Sofapaka to the second tier for failing to comply with club licensing requirements. The two teams have since been reinstated by the Sports Disputes Tribunal.
Nyamweya’s decision to move to court has come to irk him as FKF’s top most organ; the National Executive Committee (NEC) has approved his 10-year ban which will be ratified during FKF’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for later this year.
His actions must have angered the FKF officials whose desire to enforce the CAF license rule through the boardroom. They also accused him of having “fraudulently withdrawn Sh2.5 million from FKF accounts”.
We can say nothing about that accusation nor when the withdrawal occurred; all we know is that they tightened the noose by adding it on the former president of FKF.
Offices change all the time, but how do you ban someone who has retired? Why hurt the feelings of an old man? FKF must style-up.
