Sunday, 13 May 2012

Its time we supported our own league

I would love to say something about our homegrown league, the Kenyan Premier League, although I really am clueless on how to start it so I will just say, that we need to support our league. We have become so engrossed in the world's most watched leagues; the English Premier League, The Spanish La Liga and the likes that at some point we forgot about our own.

It is understandable though, given that it has, until recently, been run by some shoddy management ever since the 80s. If you read up on the history of the Kenyan premier league, then you will see how Kenyan football has deteriorated... from having some of the best teams in the African champion's league... to a country that's currently ranked at 117 by the world football governing body, FIFA. Those were the days when AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia FC reigned East African football.

Am not sure how the poor management in the FKL played into this whole mess but I know for sure that it does affect the quality of football around. Youth academies shut down, players get paid peanuts etc, while the big boss men drive away with all the loot. And thats where FIFA came in... and since their intervention, we now see a better, though it could be even better, Kenyan Premier League.

We now see football clubs getting shirt sponsorship deals, stadiums getting renovated, and most of all, our league is being televised all over Africa through DSTV. To cut a long story short, we have come a long way with our local premier league, we cannot abandon it now. I think Gor and AFC fans have been the most ardent around. You always heard them even when the league was not so popular.

My only hope is that the football governing body in Kenya, FKF extends its disciplined structure to the lower levels, the nationwide league, and the county leagues.. (yes, I bet you didn't know those existed) and Kenyan football will soar to the heights most of us have never seen. Then maybe we could 'export' afew more players to play abroad and better their lives, if not to add colour to the Kenyan football scene.

Let's support local football people. To read more on the Kenyan Premier, just look up the article on Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyan_Premier_League

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