Drama has ensued at the ongoing CECAFA Under 17 Women in Tanzania when Kenya’s Junior Starlets were docked off their goals.
Kenya, which had won 16-0 against Sudan, the organizers deducted the 16-0 goals to 3-0 but the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has launched an official protest against the controversial decision to wipe out Kenya’s historic 16-0 victory over Sudan.
FKF rejected the ruling, arguing that Kenya was not responsible for the abandonment of the match and should not be punished.
“Scrapping goals at the expense of one team (Kenya) and to the benefit of another team (Tanzania) where the goals are to be used as a tie-breaker is not only unfair but unjust,” said FKF
To back their case, FKF cited Article 50 of the CAF Regulations, which states: “This team will lose its matches by 3-0 unless the opponent had scored a more advantageous result at the moment when the match was interrupted, in which case this score will be maintained. The Organising Committee may adopt further measures.”
FKF further countered CECAFA’s stance by referring to Article 16.7 of the CECAFA Regulations, which provides that “if a match is not played to its entirety, the committee shall decide whether the match results shall be upheld/maintained or whether the match shall be replayed”.
Following the abandonment, the CECAFA Organizing Committee released a statement explaining their decision to downgrade Kenya’s win.
“After giving the floor to all participants, the majority of the CECAFA Organizing Committee has taken the following decision: Following the exhaustion of substitutes and that the Sudan Women’s team has on the field less than seven players as recommended the laws of the game and the regular time of 90 minutes has not been consumed, the CECAFA Organizing Committee decided to declare Junior Starlets the Winner by three points and three goals
“The decision was taken after requesting advice from the CAF Competitions Department because it’s a unique and rare case in football competitions and the goal of the tournament is to promote Women’s football development.”
By drastically reducing Kenya’s goal difference to +9, the decision has left rivals Tanzania at the top of Group A on goal difference, meaning the Junior starlets will now face Uganda in the semis
This came after Starlets staged a dramatic, last-minute comeback to finish at the top of Group A with a draw against hosts Tanznaia.
Bahati Kizanguzi found the back of the net to give Tanzania a 1-0 lead heading into the break before Kenya’s Jael Simiyu headed in the equalize in the 94th minute for 1-1 draw.
With that, head coach Mildred Cheche challenged her team to be more clinical in front of goal.