Fifa's full statement on FKF elections

The world governing football body, Fifa on Wednesday responded to the March 17 ruling by the Sports Dispute Tribunal which cancelled the Football Kenya Federation elections.

Here is the full letter from Fifa:

We acknowledge receipt of the decision of the Sports Dispute Tribunal (SDT) rendered on 17 March 2020, which challenges the eligibility criteria contained in the FKF Electoral Code adopted by the FKF General Assembly (GA) on 25 January 2020.

First and foremost, we would like to highlight that the FKF statutes do not expressly recognise the jurisdiction of the SDT as being the ultimate arbitration forum at national level. Moreover, we note that the SDT is not a national arbitration tribunal in the sense of Fifa circular 1010 dated 20 December 2005.

Despite the aforementioned, the FKF surprisingly subjected to the SDT by its own initiative while it was not obliged to so do as per its Statutes. This however does not entail that the SDT decisions are binding on Fifa when it comes to its prerogatives and remit for which the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland has exclusive competence (cf. art. 57 and 58 of Fifa Statutes, 2019 edition).

Therefore, we wish to emphasise that the relevant SDT ruling has no legal effect on Fifa.

We must subsequently recall that the FKF Statutes and Electoral Code as well as its Electoral Board were approved and elected respectively by the FKF GA on 25 January 2020, and no FKF Member having the right to oppose it did so. Consequently, the Electoral Code was duly adopted by a validly convened GA, as underlined by the SDT decision itself.

Even more, it is common knowledge that the successive SDT decisions on the FKF electoral process have generated demands from some Kenyan football stakeholders and concerns from the Kenyan government.

This is the reason why the Minister of Sport, Mrs Amina Mohamed, had agreed to a meeting at the Home of Fifa in Zurich, Switzerland, on 30-31 January 2020 to discuss this thorny situation.

This meeting was eventually cancelled at her own request, following a meeting her office held with the FKF and other relevant state bodies to resolve this strained situation which sadly affects Kenyan football.

In this context and for the sake of peace, Fifa is ready to meet as soon as possible with the FKF, the SDT representative(s), the Minister of Sport and any other relevant stakeholders in order to find a way forward. In this respect, should the world health situation not evolve positively by 6 April 2020, we shall contact you to explore other possibilities including a meeting by video conference.

Pending this meeting and for the avoidance of any doubt, the current FKF Executive Committee members, including its President, shall remain in office.

We thank you for taking note of the above and for forwarding the present letter to the relevant authorities and instances, such as the Ministry of Sport and SDT.

Looking forward to seeing you again soon, please accept, Mr President, the expression of our sincere cooperation.

Fifa

Véron Mosengo-Omba

Chief Member Associations Officer

cc: CAF