Fifa has ordered Kenya to adopt an 18-team Premier League starting in the 2007 season with a further reduction to 16 teams next year.
The directive was issued by a Fifa delegation visiting the country to set up a roadmap for the immediate relaunch of Kenyan football following the lifting last week of a five-month suspension from international football.
"This is not basketball. This is football and football rules have to be followed," said Fifa's head of development department Pascal Torres, who led the delegation.
"Those who don't want to follow Fifa rules should quit now because we have decided it is 18 clubs for 2007 and 16 clubs for the 2008 season," Torres added.
The decision signals a death knell for Kenya's oldest club, AFC Leopards, which has been fighting behind the scenes to survive in the Premier League despite being relegated to the lower division last season.
Political manoeuvring and boardroom decisions have long kept these politically-connected clubs to remain in the Premiership despite their woeful performances and unsound financial standings.
Fifa has also ordered the former head of its football federation to account for US$113,000 of development funding given to the country last year.
"We want (former KFF chairman Alfred) Sambu to provide an audit of how the money was used," Torres told reporters in Nairobi.
