Kenyan Premier League

The Kenyan Premier League is the top division of the Kenya Football Federation, it was created in 1963.

The Kenya Premier League was mostly stable until the late 1990s and since then its performance has not been even average. Until today many of the league clubs have mere finances to support themselves. The most successful clubs in the league are Gor Mahia FC and AFC Leopards who have both won the league title 12 times. The 2005-2006 season saw Sony Sugar FC from South Nyanza (in Western Kenya's Nyanza province) win the title for the first time since joining the league.

The league has its division two known as the Nationwide League (NWL) (also known as National Super League) and below it the are provincial and district tiers.

Kenyan Premier League - 2007

The league was originally supposed to begin in 2006 autumn, but wrangles between two factions led to a parallel league situation. One of them, Kenya Premier League (KPL), had only seven teams, but were backed by the FIFA. Remaining teams formed the KFF-PL, supported by the Kenyan government. Teams affiliated to KPL were private clubs and company teams (like Tusker FC) and teams owned by non-governmental organizations, for instance, Mathare United and its sister club Mathare Youth, while teams affiliated to KFF-PL were traditional community clubs with enormous support (like Gor Mahia,AFC Leopards and Shabana FC) or teams belonging to government-owned organizations.

However, in March 2007 the two leagues were finally united into an 18-team league, though two teams disbanded midstream (Mumias Sugar and Kangemi United). Two controversially relegated teams, AFC Leopards SC and Shabana FC were not readmitted, although there were some calls for a larger 20-team league. This was in light of the equally controversial inclusion of Gor Mahia who had been expelled mid-season from the league in the previous season, and Mathare United which had been relegated for fielding an ineligible player in ten matches, and had illegitimately fielded a second team in the league (Mathare Youth). Wrangles in KFF and allegations of high-handedness and biased decision making within the KPL (considering its Managing Director is a top official of a participating club) has resulted in very low standards of soccer marked with empty stadiums throughout the season.

The season finished in November 2007. Tusker FC won the title while Homegrown and Coast Stars got relegated [Daily Nation, November 22, 2007: [http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=5&newsid=111061 Mahakama survive relegation in league ] ] . Bandari from Mombasa and Western Stima from Kakamega promoted to the KPL [Daily Nation, November 18, 2007: [http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=5&newsid=110821 Brilliant brewers clinch crown] ] [Kenyafootball, Dec 18, 2007: [http://www.kenyafootball.com/index.php?doc=story&id=2150&categ=1# Panpaper lose out to Western Stima in promo battle] ] .Coast Stars appealed against the relegation to their financier Mohammed Hatimy, who also doubles up as the chairman of the FIFA recognized faction of the Kenya Football Federation.Hatimy's decision to reinstate the club was vetoed by FIFA following submissions by KPL.

Teams for 2008

Previous Winners

*1963 : Nakuru All-Stars
*1964 : Luo Union
*1965 : Feisal FC
*1966 : Abaluhya FC
*1967 : Abaluhya FC
*1968 : Gor Mahia
*1969 : Nakuru All-Stars
*1970 : Abaluhya FC
*1972 : Kenya Breweries
*1973 : Abaluhya FC
*1974 : Gor Mahia
*1975 : Luo Union
*1976 : Gor Mahia
*1977 : Kenya Breweries
*1978 : Kenya Breweries
*1979 : Gor Mahia
*1980 : AFC Leopards
*1981 : AFC Leopards
*1982 : AFC Leopards
*1983 : Gor Mahia
*1984 : Gor Mahia
*1985 : Gor Mahia
*1986 : AFC Leopards
*1987 : Gor Mahia
*1988 : AFC Leopards
*1989 : AFC Leopards
*1990 : Gor Mahia
*1991 : Gor Mahia
*1992 : AFC Leopards
*1993 : Gor Mahia
*1994 : Kenya Breweries
*1995 : Gor Mahia
*1996 : Kenya Breweries
*1997 : Utalii
*1998 : AFC Leopards
*1999 : Tusker FC
*2000 : Tusker FC
*2001 : Oserian Fastac FC
*2002 : Oserian Fastac FC
*2003 : Ulinzi Stars
*2004 : Ulinzi Stars
*2005 : Ulinzi Stars
*2006 : SoNy Sugar
*2007 : Tusker FC

References

External links

* [http://www.kenyapremierleague.com Official website]
* [http://www.kenyafootball.com Kenyafootball.com] - non-official website
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesk/kenyachamp.html RSSSF: Kenya - List of Champions]