Stanchart sponsorship of no benefit to Kenya Football

Football Kenya Federation and Standard Chartered Bank have launched a five-a-side amateur football tournament dubbed ‘The Road to Anfield.

The winners of the tournament will travel to the United Kingdom on a fully paid trip to represent Kenya at the Standard Chartered Trophy Finals, which will be played at Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC on May 21. The tournament, which is open to corporate and media teams from across the country, will be played between February 21 and 24 at the Impala grounds, Nairobi.

Sam Nyamweya had excitedly announced 2 weeks earlier of a major sponsorship deal with Stanchart. However a perusal of this sponsorship deal reveals no tangible benefits to Kenya football which leaves fans wondering why Nyamweya was so excited. Last year Nyamweya announced that no company would be allowed to organize football tournaments in Kenya unless they deposited 20% of the sponsorship with FKF. If Stanchart have deposited 20% of the sponsorship money with FKF then it might explain why Nyamweya was so excited. But if true, it exposes Standard Chartered Bank as an irresponsible corporate entity. Considering that Nyamweya and his team do not account for any money they receive, then for any corporate entity to deposit money at FKF would amount to abetting corruption.

All that aside, sponsoring a 5 a side tournament for corporations does not benefit Kenya football in any way. Stanchart could have poured that sponsorship money towards tournaments that benefit a wider segment of the football loving public.

Why not support women’s football

If Stanchart sponsored the UNICEF organized women’s league for example, they could help raise the standards of women’s football and perhaps help Kenya avoid humiliating losses such as the 5-0 loss to Ethiopia last year.

Women sports is largely neglected by corporates, by the media and by FKF. Supporting a women’s league and giving it publicity would be much better corporate public relations because it will give the young girls all over the country something to aspire to and if it helps raise the standards of women’s football , it will help StanChart gain good publicity as the corporation that helped raise women’s football from oblivion.

Why not sponsor youth football ?

For the past two decades fans across the country have decried the lack of structured youth development and cited it as the reason for Kenya’s falling standards. Not much has been done about this yawning gap in Kenya football. Three years ago, UNICEF took the initiative by starting the National Youth Talent Centres. However these centres are hardly enough.

Standard Chartered could win plenty of goodwill from the public by pouring money into this initiative in order to enhance existing talent development centres and the creation of new ones.

They could call this campaign “Investing in the youth of Kenya”.

By investing in youth development, Stanchart could help raise the standards of football. The football public will appreciate such a gesture much more than the 5 a side initiative of which most of the Kenyan public sees no benefit.

Construct playing grounds in urban areas

In cities like Nairobi, playing grounds are fast disappearing due to land grabbing and urban development. And those that exist are poorly maintained. Sports like basketball are popular but the youth typically have nowhere to play. The dearth of playing grounds is a direct cause of low standards in sports. If the youth have nowhere to play then they have no way to sharpen their skills.

Stanchart could partner with the City council to construct and maintain playing grounds all over towns and cities for the benefit of Kenyan youth. They could gain naming rights for these playing grounds thus gaining good publicity as the corporation that is creating safe spaces for Kenyan youth, keeping Kenyan youth busy in positive activity and thus keeping them away from crime and drugs.

 Reach a wider audience

The larger point of this article is to make the point that Standard Chartered Bank could gain much more goodwill by investing in initiatives that actually benefit the game of football in Kenya. Initiatives that are likely to gain public attention.

The 5-aside tournament will likely not draw any public interest. And any goodwill it creates will likely be limited to corporate types, many of whom are already Stanchart customers.

Supporting an initiative that helps raise the standard of any sport in Kenya is something that Kenyan football fans will appreciate. And this list of football fans includes well heeled individuals and businessmen many of whom are potential customers of Standard Chartered Bank.