FKF out to settle with Amrouche, Williamson, MP& Silva

FKF out to settle with Amrouche, Williamson, MP& Silva

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is seeking to settle out of court cases brought against them by former Harambee Stars coaches; Adel Amrouche and Bobby Williamson as well as sports broadcast rights distribution firm, MP & Silva.

At the same time, the federation announced on Tuesday the appointment of Barry Otieno as its new Communications and Public Relations manager.

FKF president, Nick Mwendwa who was addressing the press in Nairobi reiterated the federation was Ksh181,394,195.79 (USD1.8m) in the red with part of the debt occasioned by the early termination of the contracts of Williamson and Amrouche.

Besides that, MP & Silva is seeking redress against FKF for misrepresentation following the botched agreement it entered with the previous administration led by his predecessor, Sam Nyamweya to broadcast the Kenyan Premier League last season.

“There are legal proceedings, MP and Silva, Amrouche and Williamson all have cases against the federation, but we are talking to them with the aim to settle. Details of the same cannot be made public as of now as they may jeopardize talks,” Mwendwa declared.

Amrouche was sacked after Kenya was bundled out of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers, following a humiliating defeat to minnows Lesotho. FKF then under Sam Nyamweya reacted to the loss with the dismissal of the entire technical bench, which was led by the Belgian.

FKF said in a statement that it had given the bench all the necessary support but they had failed to deliver.

“Kenya’s coach Adel Amrouche has been suspended for one year by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after his behaviour during the 2015 CAN qualifier game against Comoros.

“Amrouche is accused of spitting at the fourth official during Kenya’s match against Comoros last month in Comoros and thus, the Disciplinary Board found him guilty of breaching article 129 (c) of its rules which provides for a 12 match ban to anyone spitting at a match official,” read the FKF statement dispatched at the time.

“The account of events following Kenya’s elimination by Lesotho from the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, which prompted Amrouche’s firing within minutes of the football match, pointed to the coach having a good case for compensation on a possible appeal to Fifa,” his legal counsel said at the time.

Mid last month, Amrouche was in the country with an offer to take his job back or be paid the damages he was claiming with a deal pushed by the Government for his reinstatement in place.

“FKF basically had no choice. Amrouche has a water tight case at FIFA and it was going to cost the country USD1.2m (Ksh121,421,400.00) in damages if the case was to go the full length. The coach offered to take his job  back as a way of settlement out of court,” the source that broke the story to Citizen Digital said at the time.

Amrouche left the country without an agreement with the federation with Mwendwa saying at the time, “The matter is too sensitive.”

It remains to be seen how the body in such financial trouble and ambition will manage to settle the huge demands from the Belgian.

Once Mwendwa took over from Nyamweya on February 10, Amrouche’s successor Williamson was shown the door for Stars’ poor run in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

His contract had a clause that guaranteed him a further pay-off if he’s axed with the federation left with s Ksh30m bill for terminating his services before his contract expired in August.

Media Partners & Silva Ltd who are based in Monaco are seeking legal redress after maintaining they were duped into entering into contract with Nyamweya’s FKF for broadcasting rights for the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) last year.

The former FKF’s boss attempt to force the 16 KPL to play in the mooted 18-team FKF-PL was resisted in a tussle that saw the top flight suspended for two weeks after he moved to court to seek an injunction.

Nyamweya promoted a record 14 second-tier clubs to his 18-team competition but following FIFA’s intervention, the KPL was allowed to continue as the top flight and maintain their broadcast agreement deal with South Africa’s SuperSport with his championship the second-tier.

MP& Silva paid out the first tranche of their $2.5m per annum guarantee totalling to $833,000 (Sh83 million) at the beginning of the FKF-PL season but it soon emerged the signatures binding the KPL sides were forged.

MP& Silva wired the money in two batches after it signed a deal with FKF for the rights to Kenya’s football Premier League. But FKF did not declare it already had a deal for the Premier League rights with SuperSport.

To seal the deal, Nyamweya told the company the chairmen of all the 15 Premier League clubs had signed the minutes of a meeting held in Kakamega on January 30, 2015, endorsing the agreement.

The club chairmen denied attending the meeting and accused Nyamweya of falsely attaching their signatures, which were for the attendance of a different meeting at Nairobi’s Norfolk Hotel on December 19, 2014.

KPL wrote to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on June 23, asking for Nyamweya and then federation General Secretary Michael Esakwa to be investigated for making a false presentation.

-Under-17-

“We have already conducted interviews for the U17 national coach, the successful candidate will be announced in a few days. By June 1, 2016 the Federation will have moved to the FIFA goal project which will act as the FA’s headquarters,” the president said.

The federation is planning a friendly match against Madagascar for the U 17 team, which is scheduled to play Cameroon in an AFCON qualifier in later in August.

“We know the pain that came with the age cheating problem of our U 20 team. There was a failure on our side but CAF failed too. That is why we were not banned, only dropped from the qualifiers.

“We are therefore very keen on the selection of the U 17 team,” added Mwendwa.

He acknowledged there are many logistical difficulties facing the Women’s Premier League, but expressed optimism it will pick up with time after the competition kicked-off last weekend with only nine team registered.

Tags:

Nick Mwendwa Football Kenya Federation Adel Amrouche MP & Silva.

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