Fifa suspends Kenya

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/africa/6083796.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Kenya were banned from international football in 2004

Fifa suspended Kenya from international football on Wednesday for failing to respect signed agreements to resolve the recurrent problems in the country's federation.

According to a statement from the game's governing body, the suspension will be in force until the agreements reached have been fully implemented.

Fifa's Emergency Committee took the decision following a recommendation from their committee for national associations after the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) failed to respect a 28-point agreement signed in January.

"The Emergency Committee has approved the proposal made on 18 October by the Fifa Associations Committee to suspend the KFF," the Fifa statement said.

"Fifa's statutes, regulations and decisions have been regularly violated or ignored by members of the Kenyan football family.

"The suspension will be in force until the agreements reached have been fully implemented."

The KFF incurred Fifa's wrath for failing to put a number of measures in place by a deadline of Wednesday 18 October.

One stand-out problem was the presence of two separate elite leagues within the country, which directly opposed Fifa's desires.

Fifa wanted Kenya Premier League Limited (KPL) to run a league featuring 18 clubs but the KFF set up a company, KFF PL, to run a 20-team league.

A meeting was held between the rival bodies on 2 October and a unified league was to start two weeks later.

Yet both sides then came up with parallel fixtures which ended with a farcical situation at the weekend when one team was scheduled to play two different matches on the same day in the two different leagues.

At a high-level meeting involving officials from Fifa, KFF and the Kenyan government in Cairo in January, a 28-point roadmap to safeguard the East African nation's football was signed.

Yet KFF officials failed to implement all the points, one reason why the Emergency Committee has approved the country's suspension.

It is the second ban in two years for the east African nation.

Fifa suspended Kenya for three months in 2004 for government interference but the situation was reversed after the country accepted to draw up new statutes.