Organizers confident Chapa Dimba will produce well-grounded coaches

With the third edition of the Chapa Dimba na Safaricom football tournament currently on halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic,  the tournament directors are still optimistic of training competitive coaches which will later join the national coaching grid.

The tournament assistant director Patrick Korir says with the first bunch of coaches training held in Mombasa earlier this year being a success, the second and the final is expected to be bigger and better.

With the global health pandemic having occasioned the postponement, coaches from the Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and Nairobi will have to wait a little bit longer to join the ranks of those trained in Mombasa from the Coast, North Eastern, Central and Eastern – who have already gone through their training.

“Most teams in Chapa Dimba na Safaricom have coaches who don’t fall in the Football Kenya Federation FKF and CAF training bracket hence the need to train them, we looked back at the two previous editions where we trained coaches at the end of the tournament but this year we saw the need to divide the group into two to accommodate more coaches,” Korir sai. “ The training is conducted by certified La Liga coaches and our hope is every time we train a coach we end up benefiting a wider pool as coaches will take it back to the youth,”

Six regions have already completed their selection of teams to compete in the national finals in Mombasa with two more regions now waiting for the rescheduling of their finals date, namely Western and Nyanza regions.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, when the announcement on Corona pandemic came it was important to postpone for at least 30 days to see how the situation will be handled, we were entering the last two rounds in Western region on the weekend of 21st and 22nd March, which we were forced to cancel and the Nyanza region finals which was set for the first weekend of April in Migori which has also affected out coaches training,” Korir explained.

Korir further urged fans and coaches to observe health guidelines rolled out by the government to curb the spread of the virus.

Wiyeta Girls and Laiser Hill Academy will represent Rift Valley region in the national finals with Dagoretti Mixed High and Beijing Raiders from Starehe representing the Nairobi region. Others who have booked a ticket for the finals scheduled for Bombu Stadium in Mombasa are Tumaini School from Makueni, Isiolo Starlets, North Eastern’s Berlin FC from Garissa, Coast region’s Yanga FC from Malindi, Kwale Ladies, Falling Waters from Laikipia and Ulinzi Youth from Nanyuki.