FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura has threatened to seek damages against “illegal acts” by the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) which violate FIFA’s statute requirements for independence.
In a letter to KFA chairman Fawaz al-Hassawi, Samoura criticised the association’s cancellation of two football clubs’ memberships in what she called an attempt to control the organisation’s voting power, reported insidethegames sports news website.
Kuwait was suspended from the International Olympic Committee in 2015 and banned from participating in the 2016 Olympic Games after the gulf state’s sports ministry launched a new sports law granting the government control over all sports bodies and national federations.
The law led to the dissolution of existing bodies such as the Kuwait Olympic Committee (KOC) and the Kuwait Football Association (KFA). They were replaced with government-backed rivals.
“FIFA continues to exclusively recognise the current President of the KFA, Sheikh Talal Fahad AI-Sabah, and the current secretary general, Saho AI-Shammari, as the duly elected and, respectively, authorised representatives of the KFA notwithstanding its current suspension by FIFA,” Samoura said.
“Furthermore, we reiterate that we recognise all current members of the KFA as being duly affiliated to the KFA. FIFA will not accept any of its members to establish contact or sporting relations with the Government-appointed officials who claim to be representing the KFA,” she said.
Samoura added FIFA will not recognise any action or decision taken by the Kuwaiti government or by the appointed interim committee in contradiction to the FIFA, Asian Football Confederation or KFA Statutes.
She said FIFA reserves all its rights to take any action against all those who have been involved in any way, directly or indirectly, with KFA and other activities of the interim committee.
“This includes all claims for the consequences of any damages resulting from your illegal acts,” she said.
Follow us on
