Ngando Youth Association (NYSA) are the 2016 SportPesa Super 8 Division One champions after completing the campaign in style following a 5-1 hammering of Angola in an entertaining match played on Saturday 17 September at Ngong Posta grounds.
The champions were feted with the league crown and a dummy cheque of Ksh.500,000 winner’s prize in a colourful ceremony in front of their home fans who were in numbers to join in on the celebration.
In the match, NYSA showed class to cap their impeccable run in the league in emphatic manner. In fact top scorer now with 25 goals under his belt Robinson Shitandi, struck a hat-trick in the 35th, 61 and 71 minutes to inspire his side to the victory.
John Mutua and Bobby Onyango scored a goal each in the 43 and 45th minutes respectively to further sink Angola who netted their only goal of the match through Papalai Morio in the 53rd minute.
Along with the title, the Dagoretti based team are promoted to play in the 2017 season of the league’s main tier, the highly acclaimed SportPesa Super 8 Premier League after attaining a massive 67 points out of a possible 90 to win the Division One league.
“We are extremely happy that our hard work and relentless dedication has finally paid off. We started this journey with our main goal being promoted to the main league and I am happy to see we achieved that. God has been our main strength and the team showed determination to win it and they did just that,” an elated NYSA head coach Fredrick ‘Oti’ Adeya remarked.
According to the rules and regulations governing the competition regarding the criteria for promotion and relegation, the four most outstanding teams in the 16-team chart of Division One League will be promoted to the main League (SpS8 PL) while another four will be demoted to the SportPesa Super 8 Soccer Tournament which is the entry point of the competition.
Among the four clubs that will be lifted, two best in the East conference and a similar number in the West conference will get promoted.
NYSA who are from the West conference became the first team to stamp their ticket to the main league with three matches to go and will be joined by Ziwani based Umeme who finished second in the West conference but 3rd on the overall league. In the East conference Makadara’s Zamalek and Macmillan who finished top in their conference but second and sixth on the overall standings with…..,….points correspondingly will also get promoted.
Head of Operations and Coordination at Extreme Sports Limited, the company that runs the league congratulated NYSA for their hard-fought achievement saying; “It is official that NYSA are the champions, they have done a wonderful job and Extreme Sports is happy for them, they have worked hard and put in a lot of effort because it has not come easy for them, the Sps8 Division One is very competitive but they did it. I am sure they will spice up competition in the main League come next year.”
At the same time, both Githurai Sportive and Uthiru Vision from the West conference and Tena United (East) have no other option but to fight for the chance to re-join the second tier as they have been demoted to the SportPesa Super 8 Soccer Tournament after finishing at the bottom of the log and respective conferences. Riara University who succumbed to the intense pressure in the league and relinquished their position but their fate was already sealed as they also face relegation.
The Sps8 Division One league commenced in early February this year with 16-teams divided into two where eight teams from the East and another eight from the West of Nairobi county battled to join the league’s top tier.
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