Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United will contest a two-legged playoff for a Premier League place.
FKF mediation has secured a two-legged playoff on October 1 and 6, offering a way forward after a regulations dispute delayed the new season.
Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United have agreed to contest a promotion-relegation playoff following Football Kenya Federation (FKF) mediation, bringing a breakthrough in the dispute that has delayed the 2026-2027 SportPesa Premier League for more than a month.
The agreement gives the clubs a route to resolve their competing claims to a top-flight place on the pitch. It also offers a way forward for FKF, which has struggled to confirm the league’s final composition amid legal challenges over promotion and relegation rules.
Mombasa United will stage the opening leg in Mombasa on Thursday, October 1. Sharks will host the return fixture in Nairobi on Tuesday, October 6. Both teams will be permitted to field newly registered players.
Competing rules behind the dispute
The impasse arose from differences between FKF’s 2019 Regulation Framework and its Revised 2025 Framework, which set out different routes for movement between the Premier League and the National Super League (NSL).
Under the 2019 rules, the bottom two Premier League clubs are relegated automatically, while the top two NSL sides earn direct promotion. The team finishing 16th in the top flight must contest a promotion-relegation playoff.
The revised framework introduced three automatic relegation places and three direct promotion slots from the NSL, eliminating the playoff. Efforts to apply those provisions during the previous season prompted affected clubs, including Sharks, to seek court intervention.
Different directions from the Sports Disputes Tribunal and the High Court complicated FKF’s efforts to settle the membership of the expanded 18-team Premier League. The unresolved question subsequently carried over into the new season.
Both clubs make concessions
Mombasa United finished third in the NSL and maintained that the 2025 regulations entitled them to automatic promotion. Sharks, who ended their Premier League campaign in 16th place, argued that the 2019 framework gave them the right to a playoff rather than automatic relegation.
With the legal proceedings threatening further delays to both the Premier League and NSL seasons, FKF brought the clubs into mediation.
The resulting compromise requires Mombasa United to set aside their demand for direct entry into the top flight. Sharks, in turn, have accepted that the coastal club can use players recruited after the previous season.
That provision matters for Mombasa United, who signed more than 15 players while preparing for Premier League football. They will now put that strengthened squad into a two-legged tie that could instead leave them facing another NSL campaign.
For Sharks, the settlement restores an opportunity to defend their top-flight status through competition, rather than lose it through automatic relegation.
Premier League place at stake
Mombasa United said their acceptance of the playoff did not mean they considered their original position wrong. The club presented the decision as a concession intended to end the stalemate and allow football to proceed.
The tie also brings back a promotion route that has previously allowed an NSL side to overcome Premier League opposition. The most recent such result came in September 2021, when Kenya Police defeated Vihiga United 2-1 on aggregate.
Attention now turns to Mombasa for the first leg, before the contest concludes in Nairobi five days later, with the clubs’ top-flight ambitions at stake.
