Sports sponsorship has grown by leaps and bounds. The Senior African Athletics Championships was proof that the big companies are keen to be associated with sports.
Such corporate sponsorship is a lifeline that should not be cut. But there is a problem. Unlike athletics, the other major national sport, constant fighting over management of the sport overshadows football.
For instance, despite the massive infusion of cash by Safaricom into youth football, with tournaments like the Sakata Ball, there is little if any investment in nurturing youth football.
Both Football Kenya and KFF during the time it ruled the roost, have spent more time fighting to be king rather than invest in youth football.
Even now, many of those in key positions in both organisations have become synonymous with the failures of the sport and would do well to give way to younger blood. There are few if any youth academies, and most of the clubs in the Kenya Premier League do not even have under 17 and under 20 sides. The biggest loser in all this has been the national team, Harambee Stars, which perennially fails in international tournaments, and is in danger of failing to qualify yet a gain for the continental tournament.
There is no proper policy on hiring of national team coaches for Harambee Stars. As a result, they are hired at whim and fired every time the team inevitably fails to live up to expectations.
Sponsors' Fear
The lack of organisation in management of football has scared away many potential would-be sponsors that would otherwise have supplemented the generous contribution of pay TV sports channel, SuperSport.
Kenya has excelled in seven-a-side rugby over the years because of the hard work and unity of those behind the sport. As a result the national sevens rugby team has never lacked sponsors.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
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