Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa has questioned the credibility of the Confederation of Africa Football.
Mwendwa was reacting to Caf's unpopular move to reinstate Equatorial Guinea back to the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations. The Kenyan football boss casts doubt on the body's ability in making serious and important decisions, after Caf Appeals' Committee upheld Equatorial Guinea's appeal that subsequently kicked Kenya out of the tourney.
Mwendwa’s relationship with the Ahmad Ahmad led-organisation, the man he voted for in the last election, has come under sharp focus after the committee threw Harambee Stars out of the continental stage, with less than two before the tournament kicked off in Ghana.
With the top three teams at the Awcon guaranteed a place in the next World Cup, Mwendwa wondered why Caf would allow Equatorial Guinea to take part in the tournament and what will happen thereafter, should they finish in the medal bracket.
“I think if they (Equatorial Guinea) make it to the semi-final and let’s say they win the second place-playoff, then the fourth team will qualify for the World Cup, but to me, this is a total waste of time. I think Caf are not serious."
Mwendwa also insists that Kenya will appear before Fifa’s Court of Arbitration for Sports next week for the full hearing of the case where FKF took Caf to court over the dramatic Awcon saga.
“We want Cas to give direction (to Caf) so that we can avoid such occurrences in the future. We were never informed of Equatorial Guinea’s appeals to Caf’s Appeal Committee, yet Equatorial Guinea was present during in our case before the Caf’s Disciplinary Committee.
“Caf gave Equatorial Guinea a chance to defend their case yet Kenya was never given the right of reply. We were not even aware that Equatorial Guinea had appealed the decision in the first place. Nobody wrote to us that they there was an appeal," Mwendwa said on ntv's Top Sports show.
Mwendwa’s attempt before Cas to have the game’s kick off suspended was unsuccessful after the arbitration body ruled in favour of Caf, who argued that an extra team would affect the other teams. But Mwendwa insists that Caf erred in including Kenya in the draw in the first place.
