Fifa cautions Kenya over football disputes taken to ordinary courts

By  Victor Otieno

Reporter

NMG Sport

Fifa has warned that it will take action against any individual or entity that takes football-related disputes in Kenya to ordinary courts.

In a letter to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) acting General Secretary Dennis Gicheru, the world football governing body said it had noted the increasing number of cases relating to football governance in the country before ordinary courts.

The body emphasised that it takes the principles of football autonomy and prohibition of recourse to ordinary courts very seriously and will not hesitate to take the necessary action.

“Any infringement of the principles may lead Fifa to refer the matter to its bodies for consideration of appropriate measures in accordance with the Fifa Statutes,” said the letter signed by Fifa’s Chief Member Associations Officer, Elkhan Mammadov.

The letter was sent to the FKF by email on October 5 and copied to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

While urging the FKF to take the necessary steps to ensure that all football related disputes are resolved through the relevant channels, International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) highlighted paragraph 1 of Article 69 of the FKF Constitution, which prohibits referring matters to the country’s ordinary courts.

Fifa also pointed to paragraphs 2 and 3 of the article, which establish arbitration as the mechanism for resolving all football-related disputes in the country.

The article stipulates that such cases must be submitted to an independent arbitration tribunal recognised by FKF, CAF, or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“These provisions reflect one of Fifa’s fundamental principles. According to article 51 of the Fifa Statutes, recourse to ordinary courts of law is prohibited unless Fifa regulations or binding legal provisions specifically allow for or stipulate recourse to ordinary courts of law,” Fifa said.

The same provisions state that disputes referred to in Article 69, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution must be taken to an ‘independent and duly constituted arbitration tribunal recognised under the rules of the association or confederation, or to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Article 51 of the Fifa Statutes also specifies that recourse to ordinary courts for provisional measures is prohibited, the global body said.

In Kenya, the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) is the judicial body mandated to handle sports-related disputes.

However, an increasing number of parties, mostly those dissatisfied with the SDT’s decisions, have opted to challenge its rulings in the High Court. FKF has been drawn into at least five such cases this year alone.

The most notable case concerned the promotion and relegation in the FKF-PL, by Kariobangi Sharks.

Sharks challenged the application of the 2025 regulations, which would have seen them automatically relegated to the National Super League.

In April, when a section of FKF National Executive Committee passed a resolution to suspend FKF president Hussein Mohammed and NEC member Yusuf Abdallah, the federation filed a case in the High Court challenging the decision.

In a letter to FKF, Fifa asked the federation to keep them informed of any major developments in ongoing court cases involving the federation.

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