FIFA orders Kenyan club relegation for match fixing
NAIROBI: The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) confirmed on Friday the relegation of a Kenyan club, Muhoroni Youth, after world governing body FIFA found the second-tier team guilty of match manipulation.
It is the latest scandal to hit the sport in the east African country, long plagued by match-fixing.
In a decision published on Friday, FIFA found Muhoroni Youth "guilty of activities related to the manipulation of football matches and competitions."
It expelled the club's senior team from the FKF's second-tier National Super League and ordered their relegation to the third-tier Division One League ahead of next season.
The FKF said it "fully supports FIFA's decision" and reiterated "its zero-tolerance stance on match-fixing and all forms of manipulation that threaten the integrity of the game."
The move follows the suspension of former national team goalkeeper Patrick Matasi at the end of March over allegations he helped rig a 2025 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Cameroon in Yaounde last year.
Kenya lost 4-1 to diminish their chances of qualifying for the finals in Morocco in December.
In February 2020 FIFA banned four Kenya-based players – one for life – over an "international conspiracy" to fix league matches.
Five Kenyan referees were later suspended over the same scandal.
The Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis, an independent think tank, warned that match-fixing had infiltrated Kenyan football from grassroots competitions to the professional leagues.
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