Editorial:

The spine of any successful football outfit is investment in grassroot and youth structures, no two ways about it. Of course well established clubs can afford the luxury of going for the ready made article, the market price notwithstanding. While this may be a stop-gap option, it is not sustainable long term.

For any meaningful future endeavour, investment in youth is key, nothing compares to that. In Kenya, Sport Pesa has taken that leap of faith.

COMING IN, GOING OUT

While corporates and other bodies are busy working out exit strategies and shying off football affairs, Sport Pesa has done the exact opposite, walking in through the revolving door. Recently it undertook to fully sponsor the Super 8 Tournament, a famous competition that brings together budding talent from county grassroot levels eyeing future places in the coveted Premier league.

In yesteryears, low tier and youth football was vibrant owing to massive support of multi-nationals like Coca-Cola and National Panasonic. Early to late 90s saw the emergence of talented and skillful players from such tournaments, who went on to represent the country in numerous age-level championships across Europe.

The result was very strong teams, future national side material and the much needed camaraderie and togetherness in the squads. Until those corporates opted out and left a yawning gap that for years begged to be filled.Sport Pesa has happened on the scene to bridge that gap.

For local football to make the strides everybody yearns for, initiatives such as the one by Sport Pesa are inevitable. Good top tier structures must be supported by strong grassroot and youth machinery, otherwise our football will stand on quicksand, very weak and vulnerable, besides lacking any future insurance.

CAST NET WIDER

While this apparently noble gesture is sure to have positive far-reaching consequences, Sport Pesa need to slowly extend the initiative beyond Nairobi. From county competitions, players need to gauge themselves with their regional counterparts across East Africa, to get that inter-country edge and exposure.

This should of course be a long term prospect rolled out in phases, but the mere fact the initiative has taken off in the capital underlines solid commitment on the part of Sport Pesa.

Success will definitely see other corporates jump onto the bandwagon.The end result would definitely be massive improvement in football standards that have stubbornly stagnated this part of the world.