FKF protest Cecafa decision to overturn Kenya’s 16-0 win against Sudan

FKF rejected the ruling, arguing that Kenya was not responsible for the abandonment of the match and should not be punished.

“Scrapping goals at the expense of one team (Kenya) and to the benefit of another team (Tanzania) where the goals are to be used as a tie-breaker is not only unfair but unjust,” said FKF.

​To back their case, FKF cited Article 50 of the CAF Regulations, which states: “This team will lose its matches by 3-0 unless the opponent had scored a more advantageous result at the moment when the match was interrupted, in which case this score will be maintained. The Organising Committee may adopt further measures.”

FKF further countered CECAFA's stance by referring to Article 16.7 of the CECAFA Regulations, which provides that “if a match is not played to its entirety, the committee shall decide whether the match results shall be upheld/maintained or whether the match shall be replayed”.

​The drama unfolded when Junior Starlets completely dominated Sudan, but the match was cut short in the 64th minute when Sudan was reduced to just six active players due to injuries, falling below the legal minimum to continue.

​Following the abandonment, the CECAFA Organizing Committee released a statement explaining their decision to downgrade Kenya’s win.

“After giving the floor to all participants, the majority of the CECAFA Organizing Committee has taken the following decision: Following the exhaustion of substitutes and that the Sudan Women’s team has on the field less than seven players as recommended the laws of the game and the regular time of 90 minutes has not been consumed, the CECAFA Organizing Committee decided to declare Junior Starlets the Winner by three points and three goals.

“The decision was taken after requesting advice from the CAF Competitions Department because it’s a unique and rare case in football competitions and the goal of the tournament is to promote Women’s football development.”

​This technical ruling has severely damaged Kenya’s tournament campaign, as it erases Brenda Achieng’s seven goals against Sudan and strips the Junior Starlets of a massive +16 goal cushion.

By drastically reducing Kenya's goal difference to +9, the decision has left rivals Tanzania at the top of Group A on goal difference, meaning the Junior Starlets will now face Uganda in the semis.