Sony Sugar have a 48-hour window to explain why they failed to honour their match against Zoo Kericho yesterday or they will be relegated from the Kenyan Premier League.
KPL CEO Jack Oguda, yesterday confirmed that there is a grace period for any club to explain before the Leagues and Competitions Committee whenever they fail to honour a match and that will be the case for the sugar millers.
As per Rule 4.1.7 of KPL a club failing to turn up for any league match shall submit a written explanation to the FKF Leagues and Competitions Committee within forty-eight hours from the date of the match.
Prior to the fixture against Zoo, Sony had also failed to turn up for matches against AFC Leopards at Awendo and against Tusker in Machakos. Their absence in Kericho was the third time they were not honouring a match which according to the KPL rules attracts automatic relegation from the KPL.
According to Rule 4.1.12, any club in a league format that does not turn up for three (3) fixtures in a season and their explanation, under Article 4.1.7 is not accepted in all the three (3) incidences to the committee, will be suspended for the rest of the season, will be relegated to a lower league for the next season and may face other disciplinary actions.
"It is the rules and regulations governing the league that once you fail to honour three matches, you are automatically relegated. But there is a 48-hour window given to such clubs to explain, to the satisfaction of the committee, why they did not show up," Oguda explained.
"Failure to give convincing explanations to the committee will leave them with no option but to depend on the commissar and the referees' report to reach a decision which, in this case, being the third match would be relegation."
The KPL CEO reaffirmed that should a team be kicked out of the league, all their results will not be considered in the standings. Sony's problems can be traced to the dwindling fortunes off their sugar milling owners Sony Sugar.
The financial problems that dogged them for the last couple of years was exacerbated by the failure of Hong Kong company, Quantdragon Limited to honor their pledge to sponsor the club .
Sony were one of the founding members of KPL and won what is considered the first league title under the company, when they won the 2006 title.
The club then had young players in their ranks like Ali Abondo,Joakins Atudo, Noah Abich, Kevin Oluoch, and Fred Ajwang all of whom would move on to win further KPL titles with different clubs while also playing for the national team,Harambee Stars.
