High Court Clears FKF League Season Under 2019 Rules

The development provides a pathway for the new campaign to begin after weeks of uncertainty surrounding a legal dispute over which regulations should govern promotion, relegation and the composition of the country’s top-flight league.

However, the decision could have significant consequences for the promotion and relegation arrangements involving Kariobangi Sharks and National Super League side Mombasa United.

Under the 2019 regulations, the bottom two clubs in the Premier League are automatically relegated, while the top two teams in the National Super League earn automatic promotion.

The team finishing 16th in the top flight is then required to contest a promotion-relegation playoff against the third-placed team from the NSL for the remaining Premier League place. The playoff provision is contained in the 2019 framework that had governed Kenyan football before FKF introduced revised regulations.

That arrangement differs significantly from the disputed 2025 regulations, which provided for the bottom three Premier League teams to be relegated automatically and the top three NSL clubs to gain direct promotion, eliminating the playoff.

The difference became particularly important at the end of the 2025/26 season.

Kariobangi Sharks finished 16th in the Premier League, with Bidco United and Sofapaka occupying the final two positions. Migori Youth and 3K FC secured the leading National Super League promotion places, while Mombasa United finished third.

Under the 2019 framework, Bidco United and Sofapaka would be relegated automatically, Migori Youth and 3K promoted automatically, while Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United would contest the final top-flight place.

Under the 2025 system adopted by FKF, all three Premier League clubs were considered relegated, allowing the top three NSL sides, including Mombasa United, to move directly into the top division.

That disagreement triggered a lengthy legal battle.

Earlier in June, the High Court issued conservatory orders preventing FKF from implementing the revised 2025 regulations in relation to the 2026/27 season. The court specifically restrained the federation from using those rules for promotion and relegation decisions, league composition, player registration and fixture planning while the dispute remained before the court.

There was another twist in August when the Sports Disputes Tribunal upheld FKF’s 2025 promotion and relegation regulations, finding that the changes had been properly ratified by the federation’s National Executive Committee.

That decision strengthened Mombasa United’s claim to automatic promotion, but it did not bring the wider dispute to an end because the separate High Court proceedings in Murang’a remained unresolved.

The latest High Court development therefore shifts attention back towards the 2019 regulations as FKF prepares to get the new season underway.

One of the biggest questions is whether the ruling will now require the return of the promotion-relegation playoff between Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United, or whether further directions will be required before the final 18-team composition is confirmed.

FKF had previously maintained that no playoff would be staged, arguing that the three-up, three-down system had been communicated to clubs before the start of the previous campaign.

Kariobangi Sharks, however, argued that the 2019 rules remained applicable and pointed specifically to the provision requiring the third-lowest Premier League club to enter a playoff against an NSL opponent.

The dispute has therefore gone beyond the fate of individual clubs and raised wider questions over how football regulations are approved, communicated and implemented by the federation.

The 2019 rulebook states that FKF competitions and affiliated clubs are bound by the federation’s rules and gives the National Executive Committee responsibility for setting competition dates. It also provides for a closed-season interval of at least 60 days between the final match of one season and the beginning of the next.

For clubs and supporters, the immediate significance of the latest development is that the legal uncertainty is no longer expected to completely prevent the 2026/27 league season from proceeding.

Attention will now turn to FKF for confirmation of the league composition, fixtures and, crucially, whether Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United will be ordered to settle the final Premier League place through a promotion-relegation playoff.