Kenya is most likely going to be banned from participating in the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers if Football Kenya Federation do not comply with Fifa’s directly by Thursday (April 23).
The FKF confirmed, on March 24, 2020, the receipt of a communique from FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee directing that former Harambee Stars Head Coach Adel Amrouche be paid KES 109 Million in compensation, for wrongful dismissal.
Fifa directed the payment be settled in the next 30 days, failure to which, the country should brace for sanctioning, which involves being barred from participating in the World Cup.
Ans the judgement is imminent as the FKF President, Nick Mwendwa states that the federation has no money to pay Amrouche.
“We were told to pay the money by this Thursday (April 23rd) but we have been unable to. We have written to Fifa and it is unlikely they will listen to us,” explained Mwendwa.
“So, I am telling Kenyans that it is highly likely we will not be competing in the Qatar World Cup qualifiers. This is unfortunate but it is not the end of the world because we have other competitions including the Africa Nations Cup qualification matches for both men and women, plus several youth competitions.”
Mwendwa still clings on the government to bail out the federation despite Sports CS Amina Mohamed stating earlier on that that wouldn’t be possible.
In 2015, Zimbabwe was expelled from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers for failing to pay its national team coach Jose Claudinei Georgini.