By Fredrick Nadduli,

The primary duty of any Football Association worth its salt, besides organizing and running the leagues, is to work overtime to improve the standards of the game and bring on board stakeholders of repute to propel the sport to the next level.

Goodwill is the key word here. In Africa, private entities have evolved to try fill up any gaps left by slumbering and wrangling FAs.

In the case of Kenya, Extreme Sports Limited continues to play a massive role towards making the game even better.

ELITE TRAINING CLINIC

Extreme Sports Limited, organizers of the famous Super 8 tournament, have maintained consistency and a certain level of decorum yet to be matched anywhere in this country.

From bringing on board hordes of sponsors to growing football at grassroots level where real and raw talent exists to dishing out incentives, this entity has carved a niche for itself on the Kenyan soccer scene.

Many young promising players and coaches have come through its ranks, dutifully honing their skills on the platform provided for by the company.

As it is, local coaches are set to benefit from an upcoming elite Arsenal clinic organized by Extreme Sports Limited.

Leading the high powered delegation is Arsenal legend and former England defender Sol Campbell, one of the leading exponents of the game.

By empowering and training local coaches, the trickle down effects will certainly be beneficial to Kenyan football as a whole going forward.

Tacticians are already salivating at the prospect of working with this group from Europe.

For the record, in 1995, the Nigeria Football Federation – NFF – dropped giant sports firm Adidas for bitter rivals Nike, in a move that raised eyebrows and caused a ruckus across Africa’s most populous nation.

When answers were sought on the same, the then NFF president Air Commodore Emeka Omeruah pointed out that they had opted for Nike in place of Adidas, as the American firm had agreed to set up training camps and conduct coaching clinics for local coaches, besides kitting all national teams, which Adidas was previously doing.

Nike went further to sponsor selected coaches from those academies for high level training courses overseas as part of the deal.

The explanation and reasoning cooled off rising temperatures and simmering tensions in this football mad country where football ranks only second to religion.

The consequent effects were positively felt far and wide in Nigeria.
By going out of its way to bring the Arsenal training camp to Kenya, Extreme Sports Limited has demonstrated commitment in trying to empower local coaches by way of elite training, seeing that they have been starved of the same for a long time.

Such opportunities are rare this part of the world. The least detractors of Extreme Sports Limited can do is to clear the high hurdles being placed on their path.

It would be foolhardy and disastrous to water down the gains such an undertaking is capable of doing. Let the coaches go to class.

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com