NAIROBI, Kenya , April 22 – The draw for the Copa Coca Cola national finals was conducted on Wednesday with 17 teams grouped in four pools.
Pool A has five teams while the remaining three pools have four each after a side from Nyanza province was granted a wildcard entry into the finals that is expected to commence on Friday.
“We structured the tournament along the lines of Football Kenya Limited (FKL) branches. We received overwhelming support. Coca Cola came in at the opportune time when we have the Confederations Cup this year and the FIFA World Cup next year,” said tournament scout Gerald Chege.
The teams are already in residential camp at Nairobi School where they are receiving specialised training ahead of the national finals.
“We brought the teams in four days in advance so that they could be able to train together. These kids are under 17 making it hard for us to organise them in their individual provinces so we decided to have a controlled environment,” said Chege who is also the KPL vice chairman.
Chege also lauded the COPA talent scouts for selecting the best talent at the regional games to play in the national finals and said KPL will select the national under 17 team from talent spotted through COPA Coca-Cola.
The teams are drawn form all the eight provinces where regional games were held over the past two months.
The finals will be used to select this year’s Kenya COPA Coca-Cola Dream team which will travel to South Africa for an international soccer camp to undergo world class training and coaching.
The team will also have a chance to play in the international COPA Coca-Cola tournament also to be held in the rainbow nation and will also participate in the Confederations Cup as ball boys and spectators.
Five hundred thousand shillings will be awarded to the victors, while the runners up will receive Sh250,000 while the team which finishes third gets Sh100,000.
Pool A: Nakuru, Garissa, Nairobi 1, Migori, Meru
Pool B: Nyeri, Malindi, Kakamega, Eldoret
Pool C: Bungoma, Nairobi 2, Thika, Mombasa
Pool D: Wajir, Kisumu Kisii, Machakos
