19 August 2005
President Issa Hayatou
Confédération
Africaine de Football (CAF)
P.O. Box 23
3 Abdel Khalek Sarwat
Str.
El Hay El Motamayez
6th October City, Egypt
19 August 2005
Dear
President Hayatou,
RE: SAVING
AND PROFESSIONALIZING KENYAN FOOTBALL
I
really looked forward to meeting you and other CAF officials at the FIFA
Congress in early September. Unfortunately I was in a serious car accident two
days ago and must now remain in hospital for several weeks.
I
therefore consider it important to provide you with a summary overview of
recent developments in Kenyan football and their origins. Although
hospitalized, I am still able to do everything except walk so will follow up
this letter next week with a telephone call to you.
During
my election as KFF Chairman last December, four major commitments I made were
(i) to respect the KFF Constitution and rules, (ii) to honour and implement all
agreements with the KFF member clubs, (iii) to professionalize Kenyan football
starting with the professionalization of the KFF secretariat and (iv) to
develop our game and attract new sponsors.
Sadly,
key members of the KFF National Executive Committee (KFF/NEC) gave only lip service
to these basic principles of good governance and persistently resisted and even
sabotaged my attempts to implement them, particularly former Second Vice
Chairman Erastus Okul, Third Vice Chairman Jacob Odundo, National Youth
Development Chairman Dan Omino and former Acting Secretary Titus Kasuve. They
were supported and aided by a few others such as former Re-Union Chairman Mark
Ageng.
Key
indicative examples include the following:
(i) Respect the KFF Constitution and rules
- Some KFF/NEC members repeatedly held
illegal meetings without my prior knowledge and approval in violation of
Article 30:3 of the KFF Constitution.
- Former KFF Premier League Committee
Chairman Erastus Okul and former Acting Secretary General Titus Kasuve
repeatedly ignored and violated Article 29:2 (xii) requiring all appeals to be
decided within 21 days. For example, one appeal was ignored for six months.
Another appeal affecting the fate of Mr. Okul's own club, Gor Mahia, was delayed
for two months before a decision was finally made which was favourable to his
club. However, that decision was later overruled and reversed by the
Independent Disciplinary and Appeals Tribunal.
- The same officials repeatedly failed to
apply the KFF rules firmly and fairly to all clubs equally. For example, two
clubs which failed to honour away matches lost those points while another club
which missed two away matches for similar reasons was allowed to replay their
matches. Also, in February they failed to apply KFF Rule 2.4 and suspend
Re-Union after it failed to honour more than three matches.
- During April to June senior members of the
KFF/NEC repeatedly ignored and openly defied several FIFA directives in
violation of Article 47 of the KFF Constitution.
- In June other members of the KFF/NEC held
an unauthorized meeting and then announced they had suspended me even though
they had no authority to do so under the KFF Constitution. They put so much
time and effort into doing this that they neglected their duty to make proper arrangements
for our international match with Morocco on June 19th, particularly Mr. Okul
who was the Chairman of the match organizing committee as well as KFF Acting
Secretary General Titus Kasuve. Sadly, one young student died and other fans
were seriously injured. Also, half of the gate receipts were reportedly missing.
Two months later they have still not produced a public report on that tragedy
as instructed by the Sports Minister. Consequently, the FIFA Disciplinary
Committee ordered that our next international match must be played in an empty
stadium.
(ii) Honour and implement all agreements with
the KFF member clubs
- On August 26th last year a KFF/Clubs
Sub-Committee which included Gor Mahia Chairman Erastus Okul and former
Re-Union Chairman Mark Ageng agreed on a pre-season relegation formula which
was endorsed two days later by 19 Premier League clubs. But earlier this year
when it seemed that both their clubs might be relegated, they tried to ignore
the rules and change that pre-season agreement. Mr. Okul even recently convened
an unauthorized meeting and then announced that no teams will be relegated so
that the 2005/06 Premier League will have an African and world record number of
26 clubs in violation of the FIFA policy on the maximum size of top leagues.
- Much of the recent turbulence and problems
in KFF can be attributed to the failure of Mr. Okul and Mr. Ageng to lead and
manage their own clubs successfully to avoid relegation. The resistance and
sabotage of my chairmanship escalated after I publicly confirmed last February
that the pre-season relegation agreement must be respected, that clubs will
rise or fall based on their results on the field rather in the boardrooms and
that all clubs will be treated equally without special favours for any club.
- In May this year Mr. Okul secretly
registered a company limited by guarantee to own and manage the Premier League
with himself as one of the two Directors and himself as the Secretary in violation
of previous agreements with the KFF member clubs and FIFA and of Article 33:1
of the KFF Constitution.
- On June 25th at a meeting attended by top
officials of the KFF/NEC, the KFF Premier League clubs, CAF and FIFA, the clubs
voted overwhelmingly that the Premier League will now be owned and managed by
the KPL company limited by shares. That decision was subsequently endorsed at
the KFF/NEC meeting later that day which was also attended by the CAF and FIFA
representatives. However, since then Mr. Okul, Mr. Kasuve and other KFF/NEC
members persistently tried to sabotage and reverse that decision and even
defied several FIFA directives to implement it.
(iii) Professionalize Kenyan football starting
with the KFF secretariat
- A key part of the normalization process
and new KFF Constitution was the professionalization of the KFF secretariat,
particularly the appointment rather than election of the KFF Secretary General.
Despite efforts by some anti-reform KFF officials to ignore and pre-empt the
agreement with FIFA that the recruitment process be conducted by KPMG and
especially by Mr. Kasuve who would then lose his job, the KPMG process finally
proceeded. KPMG completed that process two weeks ago and submitted a detailed
report with the clear recommendation that Professor Moni Wekesa be appointed.
- After a cursory review and discussion of
the detailed KPMG report at the KFF/NEC meeting held to endorse the KPMG
recommendation, members ignored the KPMG recommendation and instead held an
irregular vote involving non-voting officials and non-members which favoured
the appointment of the third ranked candidate, Mr. Dan Omino.
- With the support of the representatives of
top KFF member clubs and of the national associations of coaches and referees,
last Thursday I confirmed and announced the appointment of Professor Wekesa as
the new KFF Secretary General. FIFA subsequently wrote to welcome and
officially endorse his appointment.
- Over the next few days Professor Wekesa
was physically assaulted and forced out of the KFF offices by a group organized
and led by Mr. Kasuve and Mr. Okul. In an evidently planned attempt to do so
again on Monday, both Mr. Kasuve and Mr. Okul were sadly injured and
hospitalized. I have publicly and unconditionally condemned such unjustified
and dangerous violence. As the KFF office is in government owned premises, the
Sports Minister ordered it closed. If it is not re-opened soon with adequate
police protection, new and secure premises for the KFF office will have to be
found.
(iv) To develop our game and attract new sponsors
- My efforts to develop and professionalize
our football and attract new sponsors have also been resisted and sabotaged.
For example, in May I arranged with the support of FIFA a special seminar here
for our top KFF member clubs and the President and marketing experts from the
South African Premier Soccer League but followup efforts have been undermined
and thwarted by the actions of some anti-reform KFF officials.
- To reduce the diversion of limited KFF
funds and refocus them more on direct football activities, earlier this year the
generous allowances paid to KFF officials for meetings were cancelled. Sadly, that
led to further resistance and sabotage of my chairmanship.
- My efforts to secure new sponsors were
frustrated as top corporate executives reasonably required greater progress on
achieving better governance, financial transparency and professionalization in
KFF which were blocked by anti-reform officials.
- In spite of public statements of support,
the KFF has not received any financial assistance from the government. For
example, on June 18th FIFA had to intercede and kindly paid the outstanding
allowances of our national team players to avoid an internationally embarrassing
boycott of the match with Morocco the next day.
The
sad result of the resistance and sabotage by a small group of anti-reform
officials has been that the KFF made no significant progress or
achievements in the last eight months. In particular, our national players have
not received the financial and other support they need and deserve, our Premier
League was manipulated and mismanaged, our Nationwide League also suffered from
poor organization, most of our 16 KFF Branches had no ongoing leagues at all
and no significant progress was made on renewing youth or women's football or
on improving the training of our coaches and referees.
In
sum, my efforts to make basic reforms and improvements have been resisted and
frustrated by a small group of senior KFF officials who too often pursued
narrow private and political interests rather than serving the best interests
of their own KFF member clubs and other key stakeholders. However, two of the
main anti-reform officials, Mr. Okul and Mr. Kasuve, have been replaced so
there is now a better chance of finally making some progress on saving, developing
and professionalizing our football.
Moreover,
another encouraging factor is that their anti-reform efforts led to increasing
unity among our top KFF member clubs in the Kenyan Premier League Ltd (KPL), a
democratically based company in which the top clubs all have equal shares and
votes. The KFF is also a KPL shareholder and voting member of the KPL Board.
In
recognition of the overall authority of the KFF, it was agreed by the clubs,
KFF, CAF and FIFA on November 8, 2004 that the KPL will officially change its
name to "KFF Premier League Ltd". The KPL application to change its
name was even approved by the Registrar of Companies in May 2005 but was
blocked at the last minute by the unauthorized and unconstitutional manoeuvre
by KFF Second Vice Chairman Erastus Okul to register his own company. However,
in line with Article 18 of the FIFA Statutes, FIFA again recently directed that
the KPL change of name now be completed and I have again officially informed
the Registrar of Companies to do so.
I
also authorized the KPL to proceed with all the necessary arrangements for the
2005/06 season as the new owners and managers of the KFF Premier League. That
will then allow the KFF to concentrate our limited financial and staff
resources on our many other important tasks such as renewing our national teams,
our Nationwide and lower leagues and our youth, women, coaching and refereeing
programmes.
I
am confident that you remain equally committed to the same basic principles of
good governance, financial transparency and stakeholder accountability in football
in our country and continent. I trust that we will continue to enjoy your
support in undertaking the reforms needed to save, develop and professionalize
our football.
Yours
Sincerely,
Alfred Sambu
KFF National Chairman
Kenya Football Federation
C.c. Mr. Sepp Blatter, FIFA President
Hon. Ochilo Ayacko, Minister of
Gender, Sport, Culture and Social Services
KFF National Executive Committee
members and clubs