Mwendwa: No FKF, KPL league showdown

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) rolled out a six-tier national league system on Saturday with an 18-team top-flight competition at the apex of the structure.

Speaking on the state of football, newly elected FKF president Nick Mwendwa, was however, quick to dismiss an all-out bloodied showdown with the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) who’s Governing Council ruled Friday they would stick with the 16-team format.

This is in sharp contrast with his predecessor, Sam Nyamweya, who took on KPL head-on over the contentious 16/18-team composition of the SportPesa Premier League (SPL) that saw the competition suspended for a fortnight at the start of the 2015 campaign after FKF filed a court injunction that was later tossed out by the High Court.

At the height of the tussle, Nyamweya formed the rival FKF-Premier League and promoted a record 14 second-tier sides but that has now been abolished and in its place, the 20-team National Super League will be just below the SPL.

“We will have one side, one team to bury the issue of teams in KPL. We recognize the KPL as company mandated to run The Kenyan Premier League. There will be no interference of the two sponsors that run the KPL.

“We are according the KPL corporation to run and have only 18 teams and negotiations are underway to see that deal is sealed once and for all. We will get the Presentation once its done so don’t worry about the quality struggle for now,” Mwendwa underscored.

“Clubs that were in the FKF-PL will move to the National Super League (NSL),” the president who was the chairman of the FKF-PL last season added.

The 28-team third tier National Division 1 will be divided into two zones of 14 teams with the same arrangement for the National Division 2 fourth-tier. The Sub-branch levels of Under 13 and Under 15s for both boys and girls will complete the new structure.

The NSL, where all the teams in the FKF-PL have been converged, will feed the KPL two teams at the end of the season with the winners of each of the zones on Division 1 and 2 earning promotion to the next rung.

“We have started a company to run NSL and the two Divisions and the Finance Team will be unveiled once we return from Zurich,” Mwendwa who is spearheading efforts to secure sponsorship for lower divisions told.

Mwendwa further declared a new FKF Constitutions that enshrines the new structure as well as aligned to the Sports Act of 2013 should be in place by April.

According to him, local players will have only have one Identification Card that will serve them from Under 13 to retirement.

“We will continue working on the state of FKF and ensure it gets to a better position,” he assured.

Nyamweya’s bare-knuckled confrontational approach to the re-organisation of Kenyan league structures  almost crippled the country’s football until world body FIFA stepped in by sending observers to diffuse the crisis.

South African pay-television giants, SuperSport and local betting firm, SportPesa are currently partnering SPL as broadcast and title sponsors.

The dissolution of the FKF-PL as an entity leaves its controversy riddled partnerships with France-based broadcast rights agency, MP & Silva that brought Tanzanian pay TV channel, Azam FC in limbo.

Report by Abdi Rizack