NAIROBI, Kenya, May 14- Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is set to rule on whether the top flight league match between leaders Sofapaka and AFC Leopards will go ahead as planned on Wednesday.
At the same time, the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) insist the game set for Nyayo National Stadium will go ahead after last weekend’s tie featuring Leopards and Sony Sugar was called off over security concerns.
Speaking to Capital Sport, FKF vice-chairman, Sammy Sholei, said a National Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday will rule on whether the fixture will go ahead.
“We will meet and give a verdict given that the match will still be played in Nairobi and it’s barely a week since we called off their last game so our fears are still prevalent,” Sholei added.
When contacted, KPL CEO, Jack Oguda was of a different opinion asserting, “The weekend match was Leopard’s home game and that’s why we called it off to avoid any possible confrontation between fans from the warring camps but the mid week fixture is an away match for them hence we don’t expect any situation that would jeopardize the match.”
However Oguda intimated that the matter was subject to review depending on the outcome of the hearing of the court case on Monday after Sammy Aina obtained an injunction barring Ingwe’s chair, Alex Ole Magelo and his management team from running the club.
“We will be following the results closely and will give further directions on the issue based on how the judge will decide on which camp will be in charge of the club affairs,” he added.
On his part, Sholei reiterated FKF will take stern action against individuals who resort to the court over issues pertaining to clubs in the league.
“We will look to impose a definite life-long ban on these individuals who overlook the Federation’s court of arbitration from taking part in any matters concerning any of our clubs within the FKF,” the vice-chair charged.
Ingwe currently on 27 points led the KPL table since the second week of the season but following the cancellation of their weekend game, the 2009 champions Sofapaka took advantage to climb to the top two points above courtesy of a 2-0 away win over Muhoroni Youth.
Having strung an unbeaten sequence of 23 matches, Leopards are without a win in their last three, losing 2-0 to champions Tusker who moved to second after beating Chemelil 2-0, drawing 0-0 at Karuturi Sports before the former leaders were stunned 3-0 by City Stars.
Elsewhere, Thika United’s Kepha Aswani scored a brace in their 2-1 home win over Mathare United on Sunday to go joint top scorer with Sofapaka’s John Baraza who also netted a double at Muhoroni.
The win saw Thika remain fourth as the slum boys’ winless streak stretched to six games.
Despite their 1-0 home loss to a resurgent City Stars, Western Stima are still fifth with Karuturi Sports who triumphed over Oserian in the flower derby in Naivasha moving to sixth as the latter sunk to bottom.
Gor Mahia won their third match on the trot with a 3-2 victory over KCB and host Stima at City Stadium on Wednesday in their final match before the break with victory securing a top ten finish for K’Ogalo who had a poor start to the season.
Results
Sunday
Karuturi Sports 1 – 0 Oserian
Thika United 2 – 1 Mathare United
Saturday
KCB 2 – 3 Gor Mahia
Western Stima 0 – 1 City Stars
Muhoroni Youth 0 – 2 Sofapaka
Friday
Tusker 2 – 0 Chemelil Sugar
Fixtures
Monday
(15) Rangers v (10) Ulinzi Stars
Wednesday
(1)Sofapaka v (3) AFC Leopards
(5)Western Stima v (8) Gor Mahia
Table
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sofapaka 14 9 2 3 17 8 9 29
2 Tusker 14 8 4 2 20 9 11 28
3 AFC Leopards 13 8 3 2 21 12 9 27
4 Thika United 14 7 5 2 18 9 9 26
5 Western Stima 14 6 3 5 14 10 4 21
6 Karuturi Sports14 5 6 3 12 9 3 21
7 Chemelil Sugar14 6 3 5 8 8 0 21
8 Gor Mahia 14 5 4 5 11 11 0 19
9 KCB 14 5 3 6 18 15 3 18
10 Ulinzi Stars 13 5 3 5 16 17 -1 18
11 Muhoroni 14 4 3 7 9 13 -4 15
12 City Stars 14 3 5 6 9 14 -5 14
13 SonySugar 13 3 3 7 11 14 -3 12
14 Mathare 14 2 5 7 12 20 -8 11
15 Rangers 13 1 7 5 12 26 -14 10
16 Oserian 14 2 3 9 6 19 -13 9
