All eyes on FKF as NEC reconvenes, new season plans top on the agenda

Football Kenya Federation’s National Executive Council (NEC) will on Wednesday officially convene at Kandanda House for the first time since November 2021 after reinstatement by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba.

The FKF powerful decision making organ has been in the cold after the disbandment of the federation by former Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed, who cited corruption and abuse of office while cracking the whip on the leadership of the football management body.

Namwamba’s move to restore the NEC and the Secretariat last week paved the way for Wednesday’s meeting, whose top agenda is planning for the new season, as confirmed by FKF General Secretary Barry Otieno.

“The entire NEC is back to office. This Wednesday they will meet to discuss among other issues, last season’s league which was steered by the Caretaker Committee. That will obviously lay the foundation on the next season’s league,” said Otieno, who had in a past interview told Citizen Digital that FKF won’t recognize anything done by the Caretaker Committee.

If the NEC will indeed hold the same position, it will mean that teams promoted and relegated by the Caretaker Committee will go back to the leagues they were featuring in by the time the federation leadership was disbanded.

Otieno also underscored that the federation’s supreme body will be seeking to have the league kick off as soon as possible, another key discussion expected in the meeting.

“We are working with November 20 in mind. That is the date we have communicated to clubs. Our hope is that FIFA will have readmitted Kenya into international football by then so that we start on a clean slate. Clubs are already signing and registering players within the FIFA Connect platform in preparation for the new season.

“The clubs have up to a whole month to streamline registration of their players in the system which they could not access during the suspension period,” he elucidated.

According to Otieno, the plan is to start the league ‘soonest possible’ so that ‘we are able to finish it in June 2023’, to allow Kenya send representatives to the CAF interclub competition.

“We are already two months late, so we are thinking of how to work it out in a way that we will be able to catch up and fit in the CAF season calendar. If by any chance the league will not have ended by June next year, we may need to send to CAF the name of the team which will be leading by then as long as 75 percent of matches will have been played. We can’t afford to miss out again,” Otieno averred.

Doris Petra, the FKF Vice President, will lead the meeting in the absence of her boss Nick Mwendwa who has had to take a back seat, albeit for now, pending clearance by the courts on the graft charges facing him.

 “As we all know Mwendwa has an active case in court. They agreed with CS Namwamba that he keeps off football matters until he is cleared. You remember the DPP had dropped charges against him only to resurface with claims of new evidence, and the matter is in court...”

The NEC is also set to deliberate on contracts of national team coaches, who were at the helm before everything was put on hold.