Former Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Sony Sugar have been relegated after they failed to honour their third Kenyan Premier League match this season, a mid week tie against Zoo in Kericho.

The sugar millers who won the local title in 2006 have been experiencing financial challenges that saw them give away matches against AFC Leopards and Tusker, before a late arrival in Kericho for today’s match against Zoo confirmed their worst fears.

According to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) rules, if a team fails to honour three matches its automatically relegated to the National Super League.

“Sony failed to honour their match against Zoo today. They arrived late for the match when the match officials had already given a walk over to the home team,” said KPL Chief Executive Officer Jack Oguda.

He added: “Though it’s a sad thing to see a team being relegated in this manner, the rules are clear. So they have 48 hours to explain what happened to the competition’s committee who will then make the final decision.”

Yesterday, the visitors arrived at the match venue, Kericho Green Stadium at 4.10pm after a two hours road trip from Awendo for a match that was to kick-off at 3pm.

According to the league’s rule 4. 1.7, a club failing to turn up for any league or competition match shall submit a written explanation to the FKF Leagues and Competition within 48-hours from the date of the match.

If such explanation is not accepted, the defaulting club shall be fined by the committee and shall docked points and goals.

The rules continue to state that any club in a league format that does not turn up for three fixturesin a season and their explanation is not accepted in all the three incidences to the committee, will be suspended for the rest of the season, will be relegated to a lower league for the next season and may face other disciplinary action.