Thursday 21 June 2007

Some hope for the wretched Kenyan football....

At times I fail to wonder what it takes for some people to wake up and finally get things done the way they ought to be. Why are our Kenyan football officials not waking up or is it sitting down and listening to one another ?
Two major corporate organisations in Kenya have announced their involvement in Kenyan football albeit at the Secondary Schools level. These include Barclays and Coca-Cola.
Barclays Bank unveiled a Sh30 million (approx.US$450000) sponsorship package for the Kenya Secondary Schools soccer championships for the next 5 years while Coca-Cola-Kenya announced a Sh10 million(approx.US$150000) sponsorship for a schools tournament across the country -Copa Coca-Cola. The former will involve over 60000 students countrywide.
In both cases, the top management wondered why the Kenyan Football Federation has used such tournaments to harness talent to be churned out for the Kenyan clubs and national teams. This is a most important place to search for future stars(quite literally Stars-Harambee !)
I am grateful that major corporate organisations in Kenya have realised this and are willing to commit funds to development of youth in the country. What would be needed now is to identify viable projects to work with especially those with a sports background. It would also be important to have management courses lined up for those willing to take the challenge of overseeing the talent developed and honed towards positive development.
As I remember a chat with a top manager in one of the sporting firms in Kenya, 5 years from now, those not making a commitment to sports in the form of public relations (advertising or endorsements) or community social responsibility, they will be committing suicide !
KFF..... you still around ?

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