 Sports Minister Najib Balala is at the centre of Kenya's football crisis |
Kenyan football may be in turmoil but Fifa's decision to send the east African country into the international wilderness has come as no great surprise.
And there are many who feel that the ban is actually a blessing in disguise as it will give Kenya time to put its house in order.
The suspension marks the culmination of a protracted power struggle between the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) and the government.
The seeds for this crisis were sown late in 2003 when some of Kenya's top clubs broke away from the KFF-organised premier league to form their own championship.
The clubs which boycotted the KFF league included former Africa Cup Winners Cup holders Gor Mahia, Tusker, Mathare United, Mumias Sugar and Utalii. Mathare United's chairman Bob Munro told BBC Sport that he has no regrets about their move.
"We were fed up of participating in a league organised by officials we did not trust, we wanted transparency in football," Munro said.
"We tried in vain to get an audited financial report from the KFF executive."
However, KFF chairman Maina Kariuki stuck to his guns and told the rebel clubs to keep out the mother body's affairs.
Sports Minister Najib Balala saw no need to intervene as he was busy with Kenya's African Cup of Nations preparations.
Legal battles then became the order of the day as attempts by the KFF to hold fresh elections were twice thwarted by court orders after cases brought by the government.
Fifa even sent two envoys to Kenya to try and sort out the problems and oversee elections for a new KFF executive committee.
However, the trip by Egypt's Ismail Taha and Joseph Mifsud from Malta turned into a farce after yet another court order prevented the elections from taking place.
A furious Balala then read the riot act and dissolved the KFF, replacing it with a transitional committee headed by former international athlete Mike Boit.
The committee was to run the game for three months pending new elections to choose a new KFF management team.
But Fifa refused to recognise the interim body and insisted that they would only deal with the Kariuki's executive.
So in the end, it came down to a showdown between Fifa and Kenya's government.
Not for the first time, however, football is the biggest loser.
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
We tried in vain to get an audited financial report from the KFF executive 