FIFA tells Kuwait it will remain in global exile until government exits FA

November 21 – FIFA has joined the International Olympic Committee in stepping up the pressure on Kuwait over the government’s interference in the country’s sport bodies.

According to a letter obtained by AFP, FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura says  Kuwait would be kept in the international football wilderness so long as the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) continues to be run by government officials as a result of  new laws empowering the authorities to dissolve all Kuwaiti sports federations.

Both FIFA and the IOC suspended Kuwait in October last year, the second time that has happened in five years.  It means Kuwait has been unable to take part in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Kuwaiti sport has become a pawn in the country’s internal politics and in a legal letter to the KFA chief  Fawaz Mubarak al-Hasawi, who owns English championship club Nottingham Forest,



Samoura said FIFA “will not accept any of its members to establish contact or sporting relations with the government-appointed officials.”

It adds that FIFA “reserves all its rights to take any action against all those who have been involved in any way, directly or indirectly, in the establishment as well as any other activities of the interim committee” and that the action could include “claims for the consequences of any damages resulting from your illegal acts”.

“FIFA continues to exclusively recognise the current president of the KFA, H.H. Sheikh Talal Fahad AI Sabah, and the current secretary-general, Saho Al Shammari, as the duly elected and, respectively, authorised representatives of the KFA.

“Moreover, FIFA will not recognize any action or decision taken by the government authorities or by the appointed ‘interim committee’ in contradiction to the FIFA, AFC or KFA statutes.”