Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has formally challenged a CECAFA decision to award Kenya a 3-0 win after the abandonment of a U-17 match against Sudan. FKF wants CECAFA to keep the original 16-0 scoreline, arguing that the stoppage resulted from circumstances beyond Kenya’s control.
In a letter dated Wednesday, June 17, and addressed to the CECAFA Executive Director, FKF rejected the committee’s ruling awarding Kenya “3 points, 3 goals” and asked for an urgent review of the decision.
FKF said Kenya should not face punishment for the circumstances that led to the match being halted. The federation noted that Kenya had already built a decisive lead when play stopped.
“At the time of the abandonment, Kenya had scored 16 goals against none by the opposing team. Kenya was not responsible for the abandonment and, as such, should not be punished for scoring the number of goals we scored,” FKF said.
The federation added that the ruling could affect the tournament standings, especially because CECAFA regulations use goal difference and goals scored as tie-breakers.
“Art. 3.12 of the CECAFA Regulations guides us on the tie-breaker where the goal difference and the number of goals scored come into play. Scrapping goals at the expense of one team (Kenya) and to the benefit of another team (Tanzania) where the goals are to be used as a tie-breaker is not only unfair but unjust,” FKF said in the letter.
FKF also pointed to CAF regulations, arguing that they support preserving the scoreline at the time the match was interrupted when it proves more favourable than a standard 3-0 outcome.
In addition, the federation cited Article 16.7 of the CECAFA regulations, saying the organising committee can either uphold the result as recorded when play stopped or order a replay.
“Both CECAFA and CAF regulations give the committee powers to uphold the result at the time of abandonment, considering that Kenya had scored more than three goals. We therefore ask the committee to review its decision and maintain the score (16-0) in the spirit of fair play and in defence of the competition’s integrity,” FKF wrote.
FKF urged CECAFA to deal with the matter urgently and with fairness.
The match between Kenya’s Junior Starlets and Sudan at the CECAFA U-17 Women’s Championship ended early after Sudan ran out of enough players to continue legally.
By about the 60th minute, Kenya had already built a commanding 16-0 lead. During the lopsided contest, several Sudanese players picked up injuries. With Sudan having exhausted all their permitted substitutions, the team dropped to just six players on the field. Under FIFA’s Laws of the Game, Law 3 states that a match cannot continue if either team has fewer than seven players. The referee, therefore, had no option but to abandon the match.
CECAFA tournament organizers later nullified the historic 16-0 scoreline on the grounds that the game did not reach full time. They replaced it with a standard 3-0 walkover victory for Kenya.
