FIFA executive committee recommends Kenya's suspension

NAIROBI, Oct 18 (Reuters) FIFA today proposed suspending Kenya from international competitions and may discipline its officials over what it called Kenya's failure to respect agreements and recurrent problems in its football association.

The east African nation's most popular sport is in chaos with two rival organisations running parallel Premier Leagues.

''The (executive) committee decided to propose to the FIFA Emergency Committee that the Kenya Football Federation be suspended for failing to respect agreements that had been signed and for recurrent problems in the association, in particular the integrity of national competitions,'' FIFA said in a a statement.

''Furthermore, it forwarded the file to the Disciplinary Committee, suggesting that it initiate proceedings against the leading officials in the association,'' it added.

Kenyan football officials could not immediately be reached for comment following the FIFA committee meeting in Zurich.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter told committee members observing the FIFA statutes was ''imperative'' for every member association.

''These statutes have proved their credibility, their usefulness and their strength for more than a century,'' he said.

Blatter had given the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) until October 18 to sort out its football mess or face sanctions.

POOR START The national side are currently competing in Group Six of the qualifying campaign for the African Nations Cup and have made a poor start, losing their opening two matches to Eritrea (1-2) and Angola (3-1). They appear to have no realistic chance of reaching the finals being staged in Ghana in 2008.

But their involvement in the competition is threatened by FIFA's stance.

The world governing body wants Kenya to implement a 28-point agreement signed in Cairo in January by FIFA, KFF chairman Alfred Sambu and representatives of the Kenyan clubs.

FIFA wants Kenya Premier League Limited (KPL) to run a league featuring 18 clubs, but the KFF set up a company, KFF PL, to run a 20-team league. This has culminated in two parallel leagues going on simultaneously.

A meeting was held on October 2 involving the rival bodies and a unified league was due to start two weeks later.

But both sides then came up with parallel fixtures which ended with a farcical situation last weekend when only a few matches were played.

Somewhat bizarrely, the same 18 clubs are competing in both competitions with an extra two in the 20-team league.

KFF's national executive committee met yesterday and said they had resolved to stick with a 20-team league.

''We are unbowed by FIFA's demands because it wants to foster certain interests in our local football,'' Sambu told reporters yesterday. ''We have met all the conditions they gave us.'' REUTERS PKS BST2304