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Kenya's soccer officials have vowed never to let a local company to run the country's premier league even as the world's football governing body FIFA is set to ratify the suspension next week.

Kenya Football Federation (KFF) Chairman Alfred Sambu and his Secretary General Dan Omino told a news conference in Nairobi on late Saturday it would be a violation of the statutes for the federation to allow the Kenya Premier League (KPL) to run the local league in the east African nation.

"If they want to punish me for upholding the KFF constitution, let them do so. But I will never allow it to happen," Sambu told reporters.

Sambu was still insisting that FIFA is applying double standards on the way it has handled the federation. The Kenya Premier League, a company that has been at the center of a row with KFF, ran last season's premier league.

Meanwhile, KPL affiliate clubs are all set to continue with their league with teams which are willing to participate.

This was after high-level consultations between club officials late Saturday. The officials have said that even though the league will have 10-teams, the better and vowed to lock out all relegated clubs and trim down their league to a specific number.

The wrangles emerged as FIFA is scheduled to meet next week to ratify a decision reached by FIFA's Associations Committee last Wednesday to suspend the east African nation.

The suspension will mean that the east African nation cannot participate in any international fixtures or friendlies thus making Ghana 2008 and South Africa 2010 participation a pipe dream.

Kenyan football has been in disarray for the past two years but the situation worsened last month when the start of the Premier League season was delayed after two rival bodies' organized parallel leagues.

FIFA chief Sepp Blatter gave Kenya a deadline of Oct. 18 to sort out the mess or face sanctions -- but the date passed with two leagues still running.

Analysts said Kenya will also face a freeze on all FIFA funded projects until the federation is reinstated back in the world governing body's books.

Source: Xinhua