By Andrew Warshaw
February 10 – Kenya’s women footballers have urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino to personally intervene to allow a crucial World Cup qualifier to go ahead and save their dream of reaching next year’s finals.
The players claim they are being used as a negotiating tactic in a festering dispute between the Kenyan FA (FKD) and government over alleged financial irregularities that have resulted in their upcoming women’s qualifier against Uganda being blocked.
In December, Kenyan FA chief Nick Mwendwa resigned after being charged with multiple counts of fraud, throwing into turmoil Kenya’s entire footballing administration. One month earlier the government disbanded the FKF over corruption allegations and appointed a caretaker committee to oversee the sport for a period of six months.
With no resolution in sight, the FA is reported to have mandated the Confederation of African Football to cancel next week’s women’s World Cup second round qualifier against Uganda who look set to be awarded a walkover.
As a result, the entire Kenyan women’s team has taken the unusual step of appealing directly to Infantino to intervene “so that we can keep alive our dream to play in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.”
“Football is no longer just a game for men, it’s also a game for women,” said the letter, seen by Insideworldfootball.
“Men and women turn up for our games in their thousands to cheer us on. One day we would like to represent Kenya at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“But … that path is blocked for us. .The federation says that, because of the dispute, they can’t arrange our last qualifying match for the African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON).
The AWCON is our only route to the 2023 FIFA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. We have been training every day for two weeks in Nairobi to get ready for this match against Uganda but we do not know if it will ever take place.”
“Even if we lose to Uganda, at least we would have tried our best to make our people proud.”
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