League will have 16 teams and that’s final, say KPL, but FKF insist on 18

The Kenyan Premier League in no uncertain terms on Wednesday maintained that the 2015 season will be a 16-team affair.

This follows a KPL Governing Council meeting held on Saturday that resolved to maintain the league format in its current status against an 18-team competition as fronted by Football Kenya Federation.

However, in a quick rejoinder FKF announced the formation of its own league that it says will be an 18-team affair.

KPL said in its statement that a lean 16- team league was ideal so as to maintain “quality”. These developments put a lot of uncertainly on when and how Kenya’s top club football league will run this season.

The dispute over the composition of the league has been running since last year when FKF announced that the top flight will be made up of 18 teams.

FKF then wrote to Fifa to intervene. The world football governing body responded by sending a three-man delegation to mediate.

The Fifa team that included Ashford Mamelodi — Fifa Development Officer for Southern and Eastern region, held separate meetings with the two bodies before compiling a report that was sent to the federation.

However the federation has neither released nor shared the findings of the report prompting Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke to order them to do so with the stakeholders.

On Wednesday, KPL accused FKF of “blatant bad faith” and maintained that the status quo will remain.

“This issue (size of the league) is no longer negotiable because of the blatant bad faith by FKF in the recent discussions with Fifa and KPL,” the league body said.

“The KPL Governing Council met on Saturday, January 24 and unanimously confirmed that the Kenyan Premier League will have 16 teams in 2015 and, for later years, that KPL will only consider proposals to reduce the number of teams.”