Why Hussein Mohammed is rooting for return of independent Kenyan Premier League

Football Kenya Federation president Hussein Mohammed.

Why Hussein Mohammed is rooting for return of independent Kenyan Premier League

Joel Omotto 17:00 - 04.09.2024

FKF presidential aspirant Hussein Mohammed is keen to have the Kenyan Premier League run independently as witnessed before the federation took charge in 2020.

Football Kenya Federation presidential aspirant Hussein Mohammed wants the country’s top flight league run by an independent entity as witnessed before.

Kenya Premier League was the company mandated to run the league in the country since 2003 but FKF took over in 2020 when the former’s contract expired.

The league would therefore switch from Kenyan Premier League to the current FKFPL (FKF Premier League) from the 2020-21 season, ending years of supremacy battles between the league body and the federation.

However, Mohammed, who officially threw his hat in the ring last week, feels having an independent entity running the league would be good for the game and is one of the changes he will seek to implement if he is elected.

“The Premier League, the first thing we will do is to revert to an agreement where they are semi-autonomous, meaning that they have to manage some of their affairs and we have to give that freedom to the Kenya Premier League,” Mohammed told NTV.

“They will have to reconstitute themselves either into a company where they can source for sponsorships and run certain affairs on their own but with oversight from the federation where we can take care of referees, do capacity building and make sure renumeration is taken care of.”

The Kenya Premier League was formed in 2003 to curb constant wrangles between the federation and top tier clubs.

Another agreement would be struck in 2015 to allow KPL to run the Premier League until 2020 and when the deal expired, the Nick Mwendwa-led FKF took over the mandate, following another frosty relationship between the two entities.