The Football Kenya Federation has revealed that the country might not be part of next seasons CAF Confederation Cup because no name was submitted for the competition.
The FKF had responded to CAF’s deadline (May 5) by submitting the name of Gor Mahia as winners of the 2019-2020 KPL season to represent Kenya in the CAF Champions League. The body however failed to the name any team for the CAF Confederation Cup after the suspension of the domestic cup competition due to the coronavirus pandemic.
FKF acting CEO Barry Otieno said: “We could not manage to give a name for the competition because we don’t have rules which govern the domestic Cup,” Otieno said.
“It was easier to submit Gor Mahia’s name for Champions League participation because we used rule six of the FKF statutes but in the domestic Cup we don’t have any rules that can be applied and that is why Kenya is likely to miss a representative next season.”
The acting CEO also explained why the Shield Cup defending Champions Bandari, or the league’s second placed team Kakamega Homeboyz were not submitted: “We are not allowed to do that, everything in football must follow the rules, and we don’t have such rules that support FKF to take Bandari or Homeboyz for the competition.
“We have written to Caf and explained the situation in the same letter which we submitted Gor Mahia’s name, and we have told them, if we cannot manage to play the remaining matches, from the quarter-finals, then Kenya will miss out from the competition.
“We must follow football rules and there is no short cut about it, we have not put in place rules for the domestic competition and that is why we cannot decide on what to do next unless the competition is played to the final and a deserved winner is found.”
Next seasons CAF Champions League will be Gor Mahia’s fourth consecutive season in the tournament.