Gor Mahia FC patron Eliud Owalo/HANDOUT Gor Mahia patron Eliud Owalo has called for an end to the legal and administrative dispute that has delayed the 2026/27 SportPesa League and urged all parties to withdraw their court cases and seek an amicable solution.
Owalo, speaking as a football stakeholder and ardent supporter of the game, said it was disheartening that nearly four weeks after the envisaged start of the new season, the country’s top-flight competition was yet to get underway.
“I stand before you here today first and foremost as an integral sports stakeholder in this country. My passion for sports and better governance is well documented. It is in the public domain,” Owalo said.
The dispute centres on the interpretation and application of the 2019 and 2025 Football Kenya Federation regulations, with Kariobangi Sharks challenging their relegation and seeking to have the promotion/relegation playoff involving Mombasa United recognised.
Under the 2025 regulations, three teams are automatically relegated to the National Super League, eliminating the traditional relegation playoff. Sharks, who finished 16th in the 2025/26 season, would therefore be relegated under that framework.
The 2019 regulations, however, provide for the 16th-placed Premier League side to play a two-legged playoff against the third-placed NSL team for a top-flight place, with Mombasa United occupying that position last season.
Owalo said the disagreement had wider consequences for clubs, players, sponsors and other stakeholders whose livelihoods are tied to the competition.
“And at the heart of this dispute is disagreement over which rules should govern this season's league structure,” he said, warning that the prolonged impasse was hurting a sport that provides livelihoods for thousands of Kenyans.
The former government official also criticised what he described as selfish interests and “cartelism” in football, saying leadership disputes should not be allowed to derail the league.
“It is time therefore to condemn the cartelism that has hijacked the game we so dearly love. We have so many busybodies in football today, and even in other sports, cartels who want to create unnecessary controversy because of controversy,” Owalo said.
He said the effects of the delayed season were already being felt by clubs that continue to honour player contracts despite the absence of competitive matches.
Players remain under contract with Premier League clubs, meaning teams continue to meet salary obligations while receiving little or no competitive activity in return. Sponsors, too, risk losing the visibility that comes with a functioning league.
“Why, I ask, would someone proclaim to love football, yet take pride when our league is in shambles? And the future of our children is at stake. So we have to get this right,” he said.
Owalo proposed that all parties involved in the current legal disputes should withdraw their cases as a first step towards resolving the impasse, while calling for government leadership without interference in the running of the sport.
“For a start, all parties to the current disputes must unconditionally withdraw all the cases before the court. I want to repeat, for a start, all parties to the current disputes must unconditionally withdraw all the cases before the court if they really mean well for Kenyan football,” he said.
He further urged the Ministry of Sports to provide leadership in bringing the warring parties together, saying the intervention should focus on finding a solution rather than taking sides. “Sports in this country, under whose mandate sports falls, should step up and offer leadership. Step up and offer leadership, not offer interference,” Owalo said.
The Gor Mahia patron said prolonged disruption could also undermine sponsors’ confidence in the competition, with companies having committed resources expecting exposure and visibility through the league. “If this protagonism goes on for so long, you will find certain sponsors withdrawing. And we don't want to get to that point,” he said.
Owalo maintained that the current crisis was capable of being resolved through dialogue and declined to take a position on the number of teams that should ultimately participate in the league. “I believe the challenge, the current challenge, is not insurmountable. It can be sorted,” he said, adding that he had an answer on the league’s structure but did not want to disclose it at that stage because it could create “unnecessary antagonism”.
The intervention comes as stakeholders continue to search for a way out of the stalemate that has left the 2026/27 SportPesa Premier League without a confirmed start date.
