Massive registration for Chapa Dimba tournament in Western region

What you need to know:

  • The tournament will target aspiring male and female youth aged between 16-20 years with an aim of developing grassroots football, scouting for talent and propelling gifted players to national glory
  • The regional champions will then play in a national final next year where the winning teams will walk away with Sh1 million in prize money

A total of 1,600 teams have registered to participate in the second season of Chapa Dimba na Safaricom tournament that gets underway this weekend in the Western Region.

Some 80 matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday at different venues in Kakamega and Vihiga while Busia and Butere will host 29 games next weekend.

The competition will then move to Nyanza, Rift Valley, Eastern, Coast, Central, North Eastern and Nairobi regions.

“We are glad to see that more youth football teams have enlisted for this year’s tournament to make it 1,600 teams up from 1,520 teams that participated in the first edition of the tournament,” Charles Kare, Safaricom’s Acting Director (Consumer Business) said.

He added: “In this second season we will also hold empowerment sessions for players across the country in conjunction with the Safaricom’s youth network, BLAZE.” Each team will comprise of 15 players and two officials for the group stages.

The tournament will target aspiring male and female youth aged between 16-20 years with an aim of developing grassroots football, scouting for talent and propelling gifted players to national glory.

The regional champions will then play in a national final next year where the winning teams will walk away with Sh1 million in prize money.

“This season, we as a team are excited by the fact that 32 of the tournament’s most gifted players will get a chance to play with the best youth sides in Spain due to the partnership with La Liga,” Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa said.

This year, the competition will be run in collaboration with Spanish football league La Liga and FKF.

An all-star team will be selected to attend a training camp in Spain during which they will play against local youth sides.

In addition, FKF will scout and recruit gifted players into the national teams and other leagues in the country.