It's season of reckoning at Fifa, what about FKF?

The United States-led onslaught on runaway corruption inside football’s world governing body Fifa offers a ray of hope to many nations unable to rein in their national associations.

The beautiful game has been brought into disrepute seeing that the Fifa top brass, barring President Sepp Blatter, have been fingered to face corruption charges.

They have been accused of pocketing between $150 million to $200 million in bribes to award countries two past World Cup tournaments.

There can be no graver abuse of power and influence than when nations spend billions of shillings bidding to host the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza, only to have the results fixed. How cruel can that be? Something must give, and sooner rather than later.

A teary Uefa President Michel Platini says he confronted ‘Sepptic’ Blatter during an emergency meeting of football chiefs and told him to stand down in light of the scandals engulfing world football. Yes, ‘Sepptic’. That is what Britain’s best-selling paper, The Sun, called the besieged football boss as media houses demanded that he resigns.

The embattled 79-year-old has been at the helm of world football for more than 16 years, a tenure rocked by numerous corruption scandals. In its 111-year history, Fifa has not faced a bigger crisis than it is in now where seven of the most powerful figures in football were arrested in one of Zurich’s most luxurious hotels on Wednesday, two days before Fifa’s election. Swiss authorities have also opened criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups in Russia (2018) and Qatar in 2022.

The media is also not spared the ignominy of soiling the world’s most popular sport where five sports media and promotions executives face corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes. This is a sad period for a sport that has brought so much joy and friendship among the global population.

This scandal and the bold, and unprecedented, steps US authorities have taken call for sober, deep and honest reflection on the management of football worldwide and within nations. It cannot be business as usual. This goes up to the need to amend the Fifa constitution to allow transparency and above-board operations in football management.

Already, there are worrying, but necessary warnings from sponsors telling Fifa to put its house in order or they will consider withdrawing their support. Should the game be increasingly mired in corruption and human rights abuses, the billions of consumers (fans) could turn their back on the sport. This must never be allowed to happen.

Coming back home, Kenyan football has been in the doldrums for several years now. The damage has been overseen by a cabal of inept and greedy officials out to line their pockets rather than let football flourish. The cantankerous football officials have engaged in endless cat fights as levels of the game dwindle.

And with each punch thrown by the football ‘managers’, many a young people’s dream of playing in the big league are landed a severe blow. We must now say enough is enough.

Veteran sports journalist, Gishinga Njoroge, says the US law enforcement agencies are going after Fifa “the way they did Al Capone   and “the Mob” thereafter. Could a window have opened for Kenya to conduct its own forensic audit on Football Kenya Federation — an outpost of Fifa?

Well, it depends on whether the Government takes advantage of the peeled mask of the monolith that is Fifa. The FBI and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch have worked so hard to piece together leads that are now helping them lift the veil of Fifa. And they have said in no uncertain terms that they are ready to end corruption at the global federation.

It is instructive to note that it is the same Fifa that FKF mandarins have always run to for protection whenever the issue of  graft is raised.

Serious allegations have been levelled against sitting FKF president Sam Nyamweya, who has since been named in the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s list of shame.

Can the Kenya Government grab the bull by its horns now and act in the interest of its youth?