The Kenyan football league system is a series of several interconnected leagues for

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs in

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Structure

As of 2017,the top tier league in Kenya is the FKF Premier League, with the FKF National Super League below it. The FKF National Division One and National Division Two are the third and fourth tiers of the system respectively, both divided into two zones for the Eastern and Western halves of Kenya. Division Two is further divided into two groups consisting of teams from various regions in Eastern and Western Kenya. Below the national leagues are the

Regional Leagues In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, divided into regional divisions based on the former

Provinces of Kenya Kenya's provinces were replaced by a system of counties in 2010. History Before the new constitution of Kenya that came into force on August 27, 2010, Kenya was divided into eight provinces (see map). The provinces were subdivided into 46 di ...

(except for

North Eastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

), some of which are further divided into a number of zones. The County Champions League and the Sub-County Leagues make up the bottom two tiers of the Kenyan football league system. In women's football, the Women's Premier League is the top tier league, with the Women's Division One below it.

History

In November 2012, the

Football Kenya Federation The Football Kenya Federation (abbreviated as Football Kenya or FKF) is the governing body of football in Kenya. The FKF organizes the Kenyan Premier League, the Kenyan Women's Premier League, FKF Division One, FKF Women Division One and Keny ...

began talks to create Division Two, which, if approved, will go above the Provincial League as the third tier. The proposal says that the league will be made of 16 teams; the four relegated teams from both zones of Division One and one team from each of the eight provincial leagues. The 16 teams will be divided into two zones of eight teams each on the same basis as Division One in terms of locations of teams in the zones. The winners from each zone would be promoted to their respective zones in Division One, e.g. the winner from Zone A in Division Two would be promoted to Zone A in Division One. On 25 April 2013, the

decided to slash the league to 20 teams for the 2014 season. For that to happen, it was decided that the league will consist of top 5 teams in each zone (except the two teams that win the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

) in addition to the two relegated

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

teams. The remaining 29 teams will be relegated to FKF Division Two, which will begin next season, along with the 8 teams promoted from the

Provincial League Provincial League (formerly known as Professional League) also known as Pro League was the old regional Football league in Thailand in 1999–2008. It was founded in 1999 under the name "Provincial League" organized by Sports Authority of Thailan ...

. On 10 July 2013, it was announced that the

introduced a new league system to take effect from the beginning of the 2014 season. For the 2015 season, the Kenyan Premier League was to be contested by 18 teams, up from 16 for the 2014 season. At the beginning of the 2015 season, talks between the Kenyan Premier League and the

concerning the expansion of the top flight collapsed, ultimately resulting in the formation of a new parallel top division called the FKF Premier League (FKF PL) consisting of 18 teams, with the KPL maintaining its composition of 16 teams. However, on 23 March 2015, the two parties reached an agreement that gave the KPL official recognition as Kenya's top division and the FKF PL as Kenya's second division for 2015, with a memorandum of understanding outlining the promotion and relegation system between the two leagues for 2015 and the relationship between the KPL and the federation regarding the running of the top division from 2016 onwards.

Current system

References

{{League systems

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...