KISUMU, Kenya, Jul 31 – Football Kenya Federation (FKF) presidential aspirant Tom Alila has pledged to promote beach football and futsal in the country as part of his manifesto if elected to the top seat.
Alila, who is a former Nyanza FKF National Executive Council member says he has what it takes to take football in the country to a higher level.
Speaking in Kisumu on Friday, Alila underscored that with the presence of Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean, the country has the potential to develop beach football and he will work hard to ensure Kenyans are selected for these tournaments to make it to the World Cup.
“Beach football is played internationally starting from Brazil as the pioneer of the football,” he said.
Alila is banking on his track record when he served as NEC member for one term in South Nyanza from 2013 under the reign of veteran administrator Sam Nyamweya, who is also vying for the post.
He is boasting of influencing the construction of a turf at Moi Stadium in Kisumu courtesy of funds from FIFA.
“I want to stand on three pillars, first of all to work with county governments to develop a rigorous curriculum to develop soccer in the whole country. We will develop footballers from the age of five years to feed onto the national team,” he said.
He further noted that his agenda is to professionalize women football in the country besides sourcing for sponsorship to help football clubs.
Alila noted that with a curriculum in place, it would be easy to work with primary schools to start nurturing talents from the lowest level.
He proposed that there is need to put surfaces in primary schools to give them that opportunity to start playing football.
During his tenure as a NEC member, he says he promoted Muhoroni Youth Club and Palos FC to play in the national league and Division 1 respectively promising to do more for the sector.
Alila joins the growing list of people who are out to wrestle the position from incumbent Nick Mwendwa.
Others in the hunt for the position include, Sam Nyamweya, Herbert Mwachiro, Sammy Shollei, Nicholas Musonye, Moses Akaranga and Alex Ole Magelo.
-By Ojwang’ Joe-
