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Kenyans question Fifa move
25/01/2008 21:01 - (SA)
Nairobi - Two Kenyan officials banned from all football-related activity by Fifa said on Friday they would appeal against what they called the "unjustified" ruling.
Fifa's ethics committee banned three former Kenyan officials on Thursday after it ruled they had been involved in
irregularities surrounding the selection of Kenyan referees and
assistant referees for the Fifa List of International Referees.
Former general-secretary of the Kenya Football Federation
(KFF) Daniel Omino and former chairperson of the Kenyan Referees
Association Wycliffe Ogutu were each banned for five years.
Omino said: "The ban is unjustified. It has no basis whatsoever in law of natural justice. I will definitely appeal against it."
Ogutu also said he would appeal. Both men accused officials
in their organisations of plotting the move to get them out of
the way ahead of KFF elections due later this year.
A third official, Samson Kawa, the former treasurer of the
Kenya Football Referees Association, was banned for two years.
Alfred Ndinya, the most senior listed Fifa referee from
Kenya, was warned about his future conduct.
Fifa said the KFF had summoned an unusually large number of
candidates to the annual selection process for the nominees for
the list and allegedly demanded money from candidates who wished
to be included in the final list.
Omino said: "Fifa is acting on the wrong information by officials we expelled for embarrassing our association."
Kenya's chaotic soccer scene at one time had two parallel
leagues and was suspended from all international competitions
from October 2006 to February last year.
The east African country is not taking part in the Africa
Nations Cup after being eliminated in the qualifying stage.
- Reuters
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