FKF partners with Odibets to unveil OdiMtaani Cup Nairobi edition

Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa and Odibets Country Marketing manager Aggrey Sayi hold up the OdiMtaani Nairobi Edition trophy [COURTESY]

Betting franchise Odibets and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) launched the OdiMtaani Cup Nairobi Edition on Thursday, March 5, a tournament set to feature teams playing the county and regional leagues.

The tournament, which will be 2-month long is set to bring together over 140 teams from Nairobi.

Set to kick off this weekend, the tournament will be played in the two Nairobi region zones; Nairobi East and West.

Speaking during the launch of the tournament, Odibets Country Marketing manager Aggrey Sayi promised to strive to grow the talent through this tournament.  

“We seek to nurture talent from ‘mtaa’ level to the national level and this tournament is one way of doing that,” he said.

This comes months after Odibets inked a deal with FKF that will see it take the name ‘Odibets League’ from the start of next season. The three-year deal also saw the participating teams in the league rewarded with jerseys and balls.

In a period when FKF is struggling to find sponsors for the leagues, President Nick Mwendwa hailed Odibets as a partner to local football, believing the tournament will upscale the level of competition in the Nairobi County League.

“As a federation, we are thankful to Odibets for being our core grass-root football partners. Their commitment to supporting football ‘mashinani’ is very much appreciated by the larger football family,” said Mwendwa.

The two-months knock out tournament will see teams competing for the grand prize of Sh500,000, with the first and second runners up walking home with Sh300,000 and Sh200,000 respectively.

Individual awards will also be up for grabs with the best goalkeeper, top scorer and best player of the tournament pocketing Sh30,000 each and gift hampers from the sponsor.

Teams in the Nairobi East zone will have to play a preliminary round before proceeding to knock out stages of the competition due to the large amount of teams registering for the tournament from that zone.

Coaches from the participating teams have expressed delight and see the tournament as a big boost for their players who for the longest time have been neglected.

“This tournament will motivate our players to give their all for the grand prize plus it gives them a platform for them to be scouted to join the top tier league,” said Ilibidi F.C coach Nixon Thiong'o.

The final showdown of the tournament will be on May 3 this year at Camp Toyoyo grounds. ?