By Our Correspondent
Football teams that will take part during National championship on Jamhuri day will be known next week.
The search for the eight under 19-football teams started yesterday in Nyeri County.
A total of 21 football teams from 18 counties have converged at the Nyeri Primary School the Talanta Hela tournaments which will culminate Wednesday next week.
According to James Theuri, a Talent Development Officer at the Kenya Academy of Sports, the second stage of the football competition taking place in Nyeri town has brought together teams from 12 regions of the country that clinched second position during the first stage of the games that took place in August.
“From these teams we have a total of 10 boys’ teams and 10 girls’ teams that will play in a league of five teams each and produce the winners and the losers. The games will be played within the week, with finals taking place on November 21,” said Theuri.
The first round of the playoffs produced 24 teams comprising 12 boys teams and 12 girls teams which directly qualified for the national round.
Theuri said by Wednesday next week, they will have picked eight top teams which form part of the 32 teams that will take part in the final round which will kick off on December 3 in Nairobi county.
“From this whole tournament we are going to pick the best four from each category; 4 for boys and 4 for girls to join the 12 teams that were already selected after the August tournament and the number will come to 16 teams for boys and 16 teams for girls playing in that tournament and the best teams will play in the finals,” stated Theuri.
The matches, Theuri added, will be officiated by Football Kenya Federation referees to ensure the highest levels of sportsmanship are upheld during the five days of the tournament.
Yesterday’s morning fixtures brought together the Kwale County boys team against Mandera County ended with a 2-0 win for Mandera while the match between Kakamega County boys team beat the Homabay boys team ended in a 2-0 win for Homabay.
In the girls category, the Migori County team braved the chilly weather to beat Marsabit County team 4-1 by the end of the first half.
Today, Marsabit County boys will face Busia County boys team in the morning while Machakos County girls team will play against Mombasa County girls team.
