By Peter Mwaura
Football fans have a reason to smile as popular grass root championship, the Super 8 League is set to kick starts its 2018 season on Saturday 17 March.
Extreme Sports (who are the organizers of the competition) through its Head of Coordination and Operation Athanas Obala Obango confirmed the kick-off date for the new season.
“We are very excited about the 2018 season which kick-offs in earnest on 17th March. We had a meeting with club officials from all the teams and everyone is looking forward to another season of positive rivalry between the East and West.” Obango, a former Posta Rangers, and Re-Union player said.
This years’ competition gets underway without a title sponsor after last season title sponsors Sportpesa opted out of sponsorship deal owing to the 35% government tax imposed on gaming companies which took effect from January 1 2018.
According to Extreme Sports CEO Mr. Hussein Mohammed the professional sports management company is committed to raising over Ksh 1.2 Million shillings as prize money for the winners of both leagues following the withdrawal Sportpesa.
“Withdrawal of Sportpesa has left a deficit in our 2018 budget but we are working extra hard to safeguard a new title partner. For fourteen years now, Extreme Sports has been committed to sports development at the grass root. In that period, we have had many challenges but our prime goal is to continue empowering the youth through football.”
Winner of the premier league will receive half a million shillings with the first runners up taking home half the amount while third place takes one hundred thousand shillings. Winner of the Division One will pocket Ksh 250,000 as the second and third place receives Ksh 100,000 and 50,000 respectively.
The announcement comes after the success of 2017 season which saw a number of players join the local top clubs as well as the national u19 team.