FIFA dispatches letter to KFA – ‘Modify law or face suspension’

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 3: Kuwait Football Association (KFA) announced that FIFA dispatched a letter to the association Thursday opposing the new law that governs Kuwaiti football. The letter specified Oct 15 as the end of grace period during which KFA must modify the law or face suspension of its activities.

The message came as a shock to the sport community, which considers the decision to be a direct interference in the internal affairs of the State of Kuwait that may lead to the freezing of all other sport activities until the law is amended.

Sources said a delegation from Kuwait Olympic Committee and Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) will find a solution to the crisis by asking for an extended grace period to modify local laws not in line with the external bylaws, indicating a request will be presented at the meeting of the international football committee in Zurich on Oct 12, 2015.

They also said officials in the sports field and other local officials have agreed on submitting the request to evade suspension of the upcoming activities of KFA; otherwise, the national team may not complete its journey in the ‘classification matches’ for the World Cup in 2018 and the Asian Cup in 2019.

Also, Kuwait could be banned from hosting the 23rd GCC Cup scheduled to begin on Dec 22, 2015, while Qadsiya and Kuwait Clubs would be deprived of playing their return matches for the semifinals of the Asian Cup.

On the parliamentary level, sources said the letter is part of plot by some local elements to distort Kuwaiti sports based on personal interests, warning the country on succumbing to frivolities that aim to incite chaos in the country.

They expected the government and PAYS will take a decisive stance toward the issue and ask for an extension of the grace period to look into the law, without making any promise on amendment, stressing the entire issue should be left in the hand of the National Assembly to discuss in the upcoming legislative term that begins Oct 28.

For his part, member of the Parliamentary Youth and Sports Committee MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji called for the government to take necessary legal procedures to protect Kuwait’s sovereignty and the legal right of passing laws to manage its country’s affairs, suggesting that Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd and his brother Talal should be kept from harming the interests of Kuwait, particularly youth and sports sector. He reaffirmed that FIFA dares not interfere in the sovereignty of other countries in the Gulf, although sports laws are similar in all GCC states.

He emphasized that Kuwait’s case is somewhat different because of certain fingers helping FIFA to pick at her sovereignty. He reiterated the need to take legal measures to stop Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd from harming the interests of Kuwait by withdrawing from the Asian Olympic Council, and then suspend the financial support to the union and Olympic Committee, as well as clubs and unions that support him.

By Sattam Al-Sahli, Raed Yusuf and Nasser Qadeeh Al-Seyassah Staff

This news has been read 9727 times!

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