By Dawan Africa - Reporter
Nairobi(Mogadishu24)-The President of Kenya, William Samoi Ruto has on Sunday welcomed and received the English Premier League Trophy for the 2023/2024 season to the Statehouse, in its remarkable tour journey to Kenya.
The trophy was escorted by the African football legend, Jay Jay Okocha, former Liverpool star, Divock Origi, and the Kenyan footballer and ex-Tottenham star Victor Wanyama.
The President underscored the importance the English Premier League has for potential footballers across the world, particularly in the African continent.
“The League is an inspiration to millions of young footballers across the world; Africa, Kenya included. It is the ultimate football destination,” said President William Ruto.
He added that the league plays an integral role in inspiring upcoming talents, as well as changing the livelihoods of the people in the game such as players, coaches and the community.
He emphasized the need to properly manage football to promote the development of the football sector and the potential football talents.
“The commercial potential of professional football is substantial enough to inspire many upcoming talents, change lives of thousands of players, coaches and communities. We must properly manage the game to develop and exploit this potential,” he added.
This comes two days after the Football Federal of Kenya and Tanzania-owned TV station, Azam TV signed seven-year deal worth $9.1 million, including broadcasting rights.
According to the agreement the TV station acquired the broadcast rights for $1million, which will be increased by $100,000 every year.
“This is a seven-year contract and Azam has promised that we shouldn’t be worried about anything. This is a big boost to Kenyan football because fans will now be able to watch the Kenyan league through Azam,” said Mr. Nick Mwendwa, FKF President.
“The contract is one million dollars for rights increasing by a hundred thousand dollars every year in the seven years,” he added.
The Football Kenya Federation has been without a partnership deal since the Chinese-owned firm, StarTimes Media, which terminated the agreed seven-year multimillion deal after one year.
Also, the departure of South Africa’s channel SuperSport International in April 2017 has had a great impact on the revenues of FKF.
