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Kenyan league bosses refuse to bow down to federation

Xinhua, February 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Kenyan Premier League (KPL) chairman Ambrose Rachier maintained Monday they will not back down on conducting a 16-team top flight this season despite the country 's federation ruling last Friday they had withdrawn their right to organize and run the competition.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) in a Special General Meeting held in the western Kenya town of Kakamega passed a resolution to form a new company to run the league on their behalf where 18 teams will feature in what will potentially spells the advent of parallel domestic top flights running in the country for the first time since 2006.

But Rachier has dismissed FKF's directives, saying they were still in charge of the competition as he called on the federation to unveil recommendations from world governing body FIFA experts who were seconded to the country to unlock the impasse between the feuding governing bodies.

"We will maintain our ground and continue with our plans to run the league. Our league starts on Feb. 21 with 14 teams and the two which will be forwarded for promotion. If we do not find common ground with FKF on the matter, we will run our league with the 14 teams together with City Stars and Nakuru All Stars," Rachier said.

The chairman who denied claims by FKF that they had shared the FIFA report with him, claiming even the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Art and Culture had asked for it without success.

"I want to appeal to the FKF president to release the FIFA report which contains recommendations for the 16-team as opposed to the 18 team league. We are aware there are certain serious recommendations and there is need to see it and act on it. We wonder why the report is being kept under the pillow when it was meant for all the stakeholders," he said.

The KPL governing council meets Tuesday in Nairobi, and among the biggest agendas on the table for them is the recent developments from FKF. Endite