Airtel unveils Africa youth tourney
What you need to know:
- Teams from 14 countries to converge on Nairobi for Pan-African contest that aims to tap talent
The Airtel Rising Stars Africa Football Championship that seeks to nurture talent across the continent has been unveilled.
The tournament seeks to provide an opportunity for young talented players to showcase and gauge their talent against the best from Africa.
The Championship will be part of the Airtel Rising Stars programme, a football talent initiative that focuses on identifying and nurturing football talent from the grassroots to the national stage in various countries.
The championship will take place from August 20 to 25 in Nairobi and will feature a preliminary round, a knock-out round and a final in the boys’ and girls’ categories.
Draw to be done on Wednesday
The draw for the tournament will be conducted in Nairobi on Wednesday to determine the group stage fixtures.
The format of the Under-17 tourney will give both boys’ and girls’ teams a chance to assess their team and individual skills against some of the best nations in Africa.
The event will feature teams from some of Africa’s football powerhouses in the Under-17 category such as Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, DRC playing against upcoming nations such as Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Burkina Faso amongst others.
The Airtel Africa championships will be officially opened by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and will be attended by Ambassadors from the other 14 participating countries.
500 players
More than 500 rising stars from participating countries will travel to Nairobi for the tournament, courtesy of Airtel.
As part of Airtel’s partnership with DStv’s sports channel, SuperSport, the final matches in the boys and girls categories on August 25 will be broadcasted live
The final matches will herald the kick-off of two specialised Airtel Rising Soccer Clinics which will be run by coaches from English Premiership teams Manchester United and Arsenal Soccer Schools.
The clinics will be held in Nairobi and Accra, Ghana and are expected to provide technical expertise to aspiring stars chosen by top coaches in the 15 African countries. To spice up the clinics, Airtel has announced that the teams that scoop the girls and boys trophies will also attend the soccer clinics.
Music extravaganza
The final matches will be followed by a Pan-African music extravaganza involving top artistes from the continent.
Among the artistes lined up for the concert are acclaimed Congolese musician Papa Wemba and Nigerian artiste 2face Idibia. O, Tanzanian rapper AY and Kenyan gospel artiste Daddy Owen.
