Sofapaka and Muhoroni Youth Football Club has been reinstated to the Kenya Premier league and will participate in the 2017 season.
2009 KPL champions Sofapaka had been relegated to the National Super League for failing to meet Football Kenya Federation’s club licensing threshold.
Consequently, Kenya Commercial Bank and Vihiga United, who were promoted to the SportPesa Premier League to replace Sofapaka and Muhoroni Youth will maintain their status in the National Super League in the 2017 season.
“We accordingly order that Sofapaka Football Club to be reinstated to the SportPesa Premier League for the 2017 season. The effect of this ruling is to nullify the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) promotion of Vihiga United and KCB from the NSL to KPL for the 2017 season,” read the ruling in part. The Sports Disputes Tribunal found the FKF Club Licensing manual was defective.
The Tribunal also reinstated Muhoroni Youth even before their case was heard since the same defective club licensing manual that was used to grade Sofapaka FC had been used in demoting the Moses Adagala-led outfit to the second tier.
The FKF manual indicates that only a club that fails to submit themselves to the Club Licensing Board will be relegated to the NSL. There were no sanctions stated in case a club fails to meet the set out criteria.
The SDT registered their concerns arising from the failure by FKF in formulating the regulations to provide for a range of sanctions as anticipated under the FIFA Club Licensing Regulations as well as the CAF Regulations.
Sofapaka was not accorded the opportunity to know what they scored before FKF reached the decision to demote them to NSL.
-The Star