ZURICH: FIFA has added its own particular and apparently contradictory twist to the complex Kuwait sports issue writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
Back in October the world football federation suspended Kuwait from international activity because the government refused to amend a law which, in FIFA’s view, brought political interference into the affairs of the national football association.
Kuwait’s national team, in the middle of its 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, was thus halted in its tracks by the disciplinary sanction.
Hence Kuwait was barred from fulfilling its next scheduled Group G match of the Asian zone qualifiers against Myanmar on November 17.
Yet, in an apparent self-contradiction, the FIFA disciplinary committee has ruled not only that the match should be forfeited but that the KFA should pay a fine of SFr10,000 after being judged viable for the lack of the game.
The KFA may well argue that its failure to play against Myanmar was the sole responsibility of FIFA for having ordered its suspension.
However a FIFA statement insiste that “the decision was reached after a thorough analysis of all relevant information pertaining to the case.”
Kuwait’s government is involved in a major stand-off with not only FIFA but the International Olympic Committee which has imposed its own suspension.
See: http://keirradnedge.com/2016/
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