New format for Women Premier League games
Football
By
Rebecca Jebet
| Feb 01, 2018
The Football Kenya Federation Women Premier League 2018-19 season will be played in a unified format, according to the fixtures sent to clubs on Tuesday.
This will be the second time in the history of the country’s Women Premier League for the matches to be played in this format after the 2012 season sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund.
In the previous two seasons, the league has been played in a zonal format with eight teams in two pools, A and B. The winners from each zone would then meet in the play-off to determine the champion.
Kenya was selected by the global governing body Fifa to be part of the pilot phase of Fifa’s new football development programmes. The project will focus on participation growth, which is a key pillar of the women’s football strategy whereby Fifa is aiming to reach 60 million female players by 2026.
“Fifa’s new approach to women’s football development is to create tailor-made projects together with you and your team which support the specific needs of your MA (member association) over a period of 18 months. For this reason, the project will be tailored to your existing women’s football structures, competitions, capacities, and resources,” read part of a Fifa letter to FKF.
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Coaches have welcomed the move saying it would be a good initiative to bring the needed competition in the women’s game.
“This is good news to women football in the country. There’s a chance for teams to compete against each other and the issues of saying that one zone is more competitive than the other will be a thing of the past,” said Vihiga Queens coach Alex Alumira.
“It will be a good opportunity for the national team coach to select players, unlike the last two seasons where players from a certain region dominated the national side
Kayole Starlet coach Joshua Sakwa said it would help raise the standards of women football. “It’s a good move and we are now looking for a fruitful season, being our second in the premier league,” he said.