The Ministry of Education (MoE) has revealed the reasons behind the overturning of Kenya’s boys’ team huge win against the Qatar side at the International Schools Sports Federation (ISF) football World Schools Championships (WSC) in China.
In a statement on May 26, the MoE said the boy’s team’s 4-0 quarterfinal victory against Asian representatives Qatar was scrapped away following a petition by the Qatar side contesting the inclusion of two players in Kenya’s starting eleven.
The Qataris lodged a complaint with the Technical Commission arbitration panel arguing that players number 13, Elisha Nalianya, and 14, Joseph Ndung’u, had started for the Kenyan side despite the fact that they had received prior consecutive bookings which deemed them ineligible for the quarterfinal match.
“The heartbreaking decision brings to an end what had been the country’s fairytale progress throughout the tournament, registering a series of impressive results,” MoE said.
How the Bookings Affected Kenya’s Win
Nalianya had been booked in the 62nd minute of Kenya’s match against Uganda while Ndung’u, the team’s captain, had been booked earlier during the first half of the same match in the 37th minute.
Similarly, the pair had been yellow carded in Kenya’s first two matches. Ndung’u went into the referee’s book in the 18th minute during their match against Chinese-Taipei, while the captain was the first Kenyan player to be booked after receiving his caution in the 48th minute of their inaugural match against Benin.
“After deliberation the Technical Committee ruled in favor of Qatar, squashing Kenya’s win and giving Qatar a 3-0-win judgement,’ the Ministry explained.
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No Room for Appeal
Hopes for any possible appeal by Kenya were dashed after a statement by ISF’s Juniors Sports Manager Justin Legall revealed that the Africans had responded to the decision with a no-contest step.
Apparently, the Kenyan team erroneously relied on a clause which implied that effects of cards received in one phase of the competition wouldn’t be in force in a different phase of the competition.
Thus, they assumed that the suspended players were free to play in the quarters.
Although their progress further ahead has been halted, the team will still play New Zealand in a ranking match.
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Committee’s Earlier Decisions
This was a drastic turn of events from the Committee’s decision to caution Qatar for what it termed as “Unsporting behavior” following their conduct after their apparent loss to Kenya.
This was the second of such cautions of the day, the first one being against Croatia for their conduct after losing to China.
However, Kenya U18 girls qualified for the finals against host nation China after beating defending champions Brazil 3-1.
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