FKF launches grassroots referees clinic in Mbooni

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Makueni County branch in partnership with the Mbooni Constituency Development Fund has embarked on an intensive five-day training course for over 80 referees drawn from the constituency.

According to the FKF Makueni County chairman, Samuel Mwongela, the exercise which begins Friday to end Tuesday next week, is aimed at bridging a gap in football officiating and management ahead of the football return in the country.

The clinic will see the local arbiters drawn from all the six wards in the constituency benefit with basic knowledge from the invited instructors led by renowned referees in the country Steven Oduor and Peter Kiereini among others.

“FKF is ready to work with any level of government to improve the status of football in the country especially at the grassroots level. We thank the area MP (Erastus Kivasu) for organising this training and we would like to urge all other politicians who aspire to stage football tournaments in our county to first consider how they will help the youth in the long run,” Mwongela told Citizen Digital.

The FKF official also urged area politicians to incorporate the federation in their competitions beforehand for quality events noting that many political leaders organise football tournaments to gain popularity in the guise of growing talents.

“We’ve seen leaders holding poorly coordinated tournaments which turn out to be of no impact to the youth. FKF sanctioned events will always help the upcoming footballers get a good platform to catapult their talents to the next level. We need also to think about our referees and coaches even before organising any football competition the way Mbooni MP has done,” he added.

The constituency Youth Coordinator Stephen Kimanthi says the initiative will improve the status of the annual football tournament dubbed Hon.Kivasu Nzioka Tournament which kicks off in a fortnight.

“In our last year’s event which was also the inaugural we had gaps in terms of officiating and we therefore, this year, decided to seek help from FKF. We’ve also decided that we will be partnering with them to ensure we stage a successful competition every year,” he said.

At the same, the tournament organisers are planning to invite national gaffers led by the Harambee Stars head coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee and his opposite number David Ouma of Harambee Starlets, for a talent hunting mission during the finals slated for next month.