Governement to enforce FKF-KPL resolutions
The Government has promised to enforce Monday evening’s Fifa negotiated solutions which resolved the tussle over ownership and management of the top flight football league, though pundits remain skeptical on whether the two parties will implement most of the sticky resolutions.
“Most of what was agreed upon is what we had been negotiating with the two parties behind the scenes. The Government will ensure all of what has been implemented is enforced,” Commisioner for Sports Gordon Oluoch told Nairobi News.
The truce between Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) was negotiated for 36 hours at the Norfolk Hotel starting Sunday morning, by a three man Fifa team led by the youthful Ghana FA President Kwesi Kantakyi.
In what is perceived as victory for KPL, the body reserved the rights to manage the top flight competition consisting 16 teams, for this season atleast.
This puts to an end the existence of parallel leagues in the country, a situation that has been in place for the past month.
Sam Nyamweya’s FKF was also ordered to, as exclusively revealed by Nation Sport last month, withdraw the court case against the KPL and its officials.
COMMERCIAL DEALS
“Kenyan football has won and justice prevailed,” KPL CEO Jack Oguda said immediately after the truce was announced.
Oguda and his team however lost out to FKF on a raft of crucial benefits the body has enjoyed over the last six weeks.
These include the rights to commercial deals worth hundreds of millions of shillings, the competition’s brand name, ability to make independent judicial decisions, select referees, and even the right to KPL’s very own existence which will be determined at FKF’s next Annual General Meeting.
Kantakyi’s team also handed the Federation the mandate to oversee all football activities.
The Fifa team also announced that an MOU detailing the relegation and promotion modalities in the top flight be agreed upon and signed within the next two months.
However, several commercial and political interests, lack of trust between the two bodies, and rivalry between the two sets of officials could form the biggest test yet in the implementation of the second Fifa led peace talks in Kenya in the last three years.