Wanyama Cup under-16 action kicks off today

The inaugural under-16 Wanyama Cup football tournament is scheduled to take place this weekend at St Mary’s School in Nairobi, with the winning team receiving a cash prize of Sh500,000.

The tournament, which is the brainchild of Kenyan international Victor Wanyama and his brother MacDonald Mariga, will be an 11-a-side affair incorporating 24 teams from Nairobi.

The two-day tournament will be played in a knock-out format, with teams drawn from popular Nairobi neighbourhoods such as Kangemi, Lavington, South 'C', Mathare North, Kahawa Sukari and Ruai.

During the launch of the tournament on Friday, Wanyama thanked the sponsors for supporting the initiative, and revealed that there are plans to convert the tournament into a countrywide affair in order to maximise the benefits to Kenyan youth.

“I want to thank the sponsors for coming in to support this initiative. This is something I have been thinking about for a long time, and this time I have decided to do it even though I am starting small.

“We have big plans for the tournament and next year, we hope to have it played across all the 47 counties, and perhaps even have some ladies teams so that more young people can benefit.

“The purpose of this tournament is to nurture raw talent, to encourage teenagers to continue pursuing their football dreams, and also to ensure that they stay in school by subsidising part of their school fees,” he said.

Wanyama’s sentiments were echoed by those of his brother Mariga who said that plans have been put to ensure that all participants of the tournament are of the stipulated age.

“Age cheating is a big problem I know, but we have taken specific measures to ensure it doesn’t happen in this tournament. We have asked each participants to produce their original birth certificates, and we have also taken details of their parents so that we can do follow-ups in the event of a dispute,” he said.

The organisers lamented the lack of good pitches in the county, before promising to rotate the venue in subsequent editions.

“We looked at the availability of good pitches as well as the security of the participants. In Eastlands, we had the challenge of finding a good pitch so we settled on St. Mary’s which is in a secure location and also has about four good, standard size pitches,” Wanyama said.