Fifa trashes SDT ruling on FKF polls

As exclusively reported by the Nation Sport on March 20, world football governing body, Fifa has trashed the decision by the Sports Disputes Tribunal to declare Football Kenya Federation's National Executive Committee's term over.

The world governing body 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 FKF president Nick Mwendwa's and his National Executive Committee's (NEC) term of office had expired.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the current FKF Executive Committee members, including its president office shall remain in office," Fifa's letter, which has been signed off by Fifa's Chief Member Associations Officer, Veron-Mosengo-Omba.

Fifa has 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 Statutes, 2019 edition)."

"Therefore we wish to emphasise that the relevant SDT ruling has no legal effect on Fifa."

Monsengo-Omba has further taken issue with a decision by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed to snub a meeting with Fifa officials that was aimed at resolving this impasse.

"It is common knowledge that the successive SDT decisions on the FKF Electoral process have generated demands from some Kenyan football stakeholders and concerns from the Kenyan government. This is the reason why the Minister of Sport, Mrs Amina Mohamed had agreed to a meeting at the Home of Fifa in Zurich, Switzerland, on 30-31 January 2020 to discuss this thorny situation. The meeting was eventually cancelled at her own request."

Fifa then extended an invite for another meeting with SDT, FKF and the sports ministry.

"In this context and for the sake of peace, Fifa is ready to meet as soon as possible with the FKF, the SDT representative(s), Minister of Sport and any other relevant stakeholders in order to find a way forward. In this respect, should the world health situation not evolve positively by 6 April 2020, we shall contact you to explore the other possibilities including meeting by video conference."