World football governing body Fifa meets today to evaluate a long-standing dispute between Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and Adel Amrouche, a former coach of the Kenyan national senior football team, Harambee Stars.
The Algerian-born Belgian won a Sh109 million award — including accrued interest and costs — in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as compensation for unfair dismissal by FKF in 2014.
At the time of his sacking, Amrouche was serving a six-month ban imposed by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for allegedly spitting on a match official in a 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match between Kenya and Comoros.
Amrouche was not paid his dues, a matter he successfully pursued at Fifa and in the CAS.
Thrice, FKF has appealed to Fifa to extend the deadline for compensating Amrouche. An extension was granted on all the three occasions.
However, the federation defaulted on the payment every time an extension was granted.
The latest deadline lapsed on April 24, after which Fifa indicated that the case would be resubmitted to its disciplinary committee for review and set today as the submission date.
Severe punishment awaits Kenya should it fail to comply with the CAS directive to compensate the coach. The country could be expelled from the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
That is why FKF should reach a settlement with the coach and not just bank on the reluctant Ministry of Sports to come to its rescue.
FKF and the government should take the matter seriously and resolve it immediately. Perhaps the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund can come in handy.
But FKF officials found to have failed in their responsibility must not be let to go scot-free.
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