Super Eight returns after five-year absence

After a five year lull, the Super Eight football tournament is back with the ninth edition set to kick off next month.

The tournament - which is primarily tailor-made for youth in Nairobi County - does not allow participation of Kenyan Premier League and National Super League teams.

Extreme Sports Chief Executive Hussein Mohamed on Tuesday said that the aim of the decade long tournament is to “empower youths and contribute to football development in the country”.

“We have two choices, to let football die completely or do something about it. We are very concerned and we want to make this (tournament) happen. The Super Eight is back, bigger and stronger,” he said.

FKF ELECTIONS

The move by Hussein to reawaken the competition is seen as a calculated measure to position himself strategically ahead of the Football Kenya Federation elections slated for later this year.

The Nairobi-based businessman contested for the FKF chairman’s position in the 2011 elections but was unsuccessful despite the aura and excitement that his candidacy had generated.

However, he was coy on the matter, insisting that the aim of reinvigorating the tourney is to give players a platform to play football and develop their talents.

Besides football, Hussein said that the tournament will offer employment to 160 youths –80 of whom will be women. The youth will be incorporated to help in coordination aspects.

“We’ve had a lot of challenges in the recent past and that is why the tournament was not organised but we do not want to dwell on the past but to focus on how Super Eight can grow,” he said of the tourney that has undergone a five-year hiatus before adding that the winners will take home a trophy and Sh500,000 in prize money.