Update: Mwendwa says Gor Mahia should be declared champions if league is incomplete
FKF Chair Nick Mwendwa has stated that according to FIFA statutues, Gor Mahia should be league champions if the league is not completed.
Additional reporting from the Nation
Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa has said Gor Mahia should be declared the Kenyan Premier League champions this season if the league doesn’t resume due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The disease has so far claimed four lives in the country with 142 recorded infections.
According to the youthful football administrator, the results from all teams thus far in the season will be used to determine the winners and those to be relegated.
Speaking in a local radio station on Saturday, Mwendwa said the Fifa rules apply when the season is not completed due to unavoidable circumstances and that should be the situation in the Kenyan Premier League.
“If the league is stopped before half of the season at any eventuality the league is cancelled indefinitely. If the games played are more than half and less than 75 per cent then league standings at half season is used to determine the league winners in all the league tiers,” said Mwendwa.
The third instance he quoted is that if the games played are more than 75 per cent played then league standings at that point determines the league winners in all tiers.
The second options applies for this season since there are between 11 and 10 games remaining depending on each team which does not account for 75 per cent.
This means that in any case the league doesn’t resume due to the coronavirus pandemic K’Ogalo will retain their title and win it for the fourth season in a row.
At 16 round of matches, Gor were leading the table on 38 points, four ahead of Tusker who were second on 34, followed by Kakamega Homeboyz with 33 points.
Going by the same rule, the teams to be relegated are Chemelil Sugar, who were bottom of the table with four points at the half way stage, while Kisumu All Stars were one place above them on eight points and Nzoia Sugar third on 10 points.
KPL chief executive officer Jack Oguda, has in the past talked about the league sitting together to agree on a common ground on how to determine the outcome of this season’s competition should the rest of the matches not be held.
KPL says the league will resume
KPL CEO Jack Oguda has said that the 2019-2020 Kenya Premier league is suspended indefinitely
Additional reporting from the Nation
The league had been halted for three weeks following government’s directive against public gatherings following the coronavirus pandemic, but now, KPL, through a statement signed by Oguda, has revealed the league will remain suspended.
“Kenyan Premier League wishes to inform clubs participating in the 2019-20 KPL season and all stakeholders that league fixtures remain suspended owing to the difficult time we are all experiencing at the moment,” the statement reads in part.
“We will issue an update on when league fixtures will resume as soon as the current situation improves. We urge everyone to stay safe and adhere to the precautionary measures announced by the Government,” it adds.
With discussions on the fate of the current season going on, KPL has clarified that matches will resume once the coronavirus is contained and the 2019-20 season will, therefore, have to end before another season kicks off.
Gor Mahia currently leads the standings with 54 points having played 23 matches.
At the same time Mwendwa says that the league might not resume and Gor will be declared winners as per the middle way points position
At the same time Mwendwa says the league might end and Gor declared champs as per the mid-season points tally
Oguda has always been a useless fellow. he has no major accomplishments in his 10 years at helm. I don’t understand how he is still chairman
Oguda is not the Chairman
I mean’t to say that he has been the CEO of KPL for 10 years or more
Goodbye Oguda and your useless KPL which cannot source out sponsorship for the league and has done nothing to improve the KPL standards. This is KPL’s last season in management of the top tier league in Kenya. We will never forgive him for siding with Mwendwa in denying Gor Mahia the league in 2016 by deducting our three points in a match we had lost to Tusker earlier in the season. Since then, no team has ever been deducted points for causing violence pre, during and post the match. Oguda and Mwendwa must pay for denying Kogalo their 8th title in a row since 2013.
I hope the KPL and all the teams use this time off to restrategize financial strategies. We cannot continue like this. KPL must be run by competent people. Oguda must go. Clubs must join the 21st century. Wacheni fiche fiche.