Kenyan FA Goes Digital

Kenyan Football Federation (FKF), have become the latest organization to embrace the social media platform in a bid to connect with the increasing number of people signing up to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The country's football governing body has opened social media accounts for both the national team, Harambee Stars, and the federation itself. The national team's twitter handle (@hstarsofficial) will be used to provide live tweets and updates whenever the team is in action either in qualifiers or international friendly matches and will be supported by the Official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/harambeestarskenya).

This latest move has been necessitated by the difficulty that most Kenyans have had in trying to keep abreast with the team's progress especially when they play outside the country and the matches are neither live on TV nor streamed live online.

"The nation is embracing a digital tide and the Federation seeks not to be left behind by the sweeping wind of change“ noted FKF President Sam Nyamweya. "We are moving to a new era and we must change with technology. The entire Kenyan population is embracing use of Facebook and twitter and we as the federation cannot be left behind. All these are plans to better how we manage football in the country,” he added.

Meanwhile the federation has also announced that it will be making public its 10-year strategic plan to the public after it was approved in the the recent Annual General Meeting.

The strategic plan which rolls out Football Kenya’s ambition to revamp and take the level of Kenyan soccer to the next level will seek to be implemented in the next ten years. Some of the major points noted in the strategic plan include; 

A revamped league structure

This will see the country’s leagues organized better from the premier league all the way to the sub county leagues. Part of the big plan will be to roll out sponsorship for all the leagues from the National Super league all the way downward

Better focus on Women soccer with the establishment of all age group national teams

This will entail the establishment of permanent technical benches for all age group teams as well as partnership with the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association and Kenya Primary School Sports Association in harnessing talent. This will go a long way in actualizing the dreams of the women’s teams in qualifying for the World Cup as well as African Championships in all age groups.

Improved National team performance

The big dream will be seeing the Harambee Stars ranked at position 16 in the FIFA rankings by 2022. Part of the federation’s plan will be to see the national team qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morroco as short term goals. An Olympic Qualification in 2016 is also part of FKF’s plan.

Youth development

The federation lines out youth development as the core plan in bringing soccer levels to a reputable height. Part of the plan will be taking stock of all youth academies as well as youth centers to harness partnership with Football Kenya.

Also, the state of the National Junior teams will be taken into keen consideration with the establishment of permanent technical benches from the Under 17-23 national teams. To aid in this, FKF seeks to lay out a good structure of the youth development program.

Other plans which are lined out in the strategic plan are technical plans which include better training of coaches, referees and match commissioners as well as the setting up of a fully functional FKF medical committee, trained and certified by CAF.

“We will be publishing the draft of the Strategic plan and launch it officially. The draft will be distributed widely and give an opportunity for the public to critic our plan and see how we can better it,” FKF President Sam Nyamweya said.

“Part of the federation’s policy is openness and this has always been based on consultations and partnership. The relationship with KPL and engagement with professionals and good rapport with sponsors and government are some of the examples where this has worked,” he added.

The launch of the strategic plan is expected to be rolled out in the coming week.

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