Africa-Press – Kenya. Tusker FC is on the verge of forming a women’s side in a bid to align with the Confederation of African Football (Caf) requirements for teams participating in continental competitions next year.
“At the moment, there are ongoing conversations and by the end of this season, we will have a women’s side that is affiliated with Tusker,” said Tusker FC’s chief executive officer, Sam Nzau.
In an interview with the club’s media, Nzau said having a Tusker women’s side has been a long-term project even before the Caf directive came. “Even before Caf sent the requirements, we had already foreseen this and we had started engaging different women’s clubs,” said Nzau.
“There are two ways we are looking at this in order to have the team. We are thinking of buying a women’s club and absorbing it into the Tusker family. We can partner with a women’s team and build an affiliation from the women’s team to Tusker,” he added.
Despite being in second place, the Brewers are favourites to win the league title as well as clinching the FKF Cup. If they manage either gong, they will represent the country in continental competitions next season.
Caf insists any men’s team without a women’s side will be prohibited from participating in inter-club competitions starting next season. In the meantime, the CEO reiterated the club’s ambitions ahead of next season, saying they hope to improve the Ruaraka Grounds and develop a youth team to help the team dominate in the future.
“Our stadium is not of the right standard. We are working tirelessly on making the turf a better one and also constructing the stands for the fans. The club is determined to give the players the best infrastructures; in training, on the pitch and in the changing rooms,” said Nzau.
“In the long run, the vision is to have a standard football pitch. By next season, there will be visible signs of progress in our stadium. We want both our players and fans to be comfortable while in the stadium.”
“We are focusing on having a youth team that will produce quality players. Our targets go beyond winning titles. We want to develop talents that can play beyond the boarders. We are aiming at signing 70 percent of our players from the youth team in the next two season,” he added.
Nzau believes the league is not yet gone and he has high hopes that Tusker will get maximum points in the final two matches and still have the chance to defend the title.
Speaking about continental competitions, the CEO said that advancing into the group stage of Caf competitions is the target since they have been in the competitions a couple of times.
“On top of representing Kenya in Caf competitions, our main target is to advance beyond the group stage. We have enjoyed enough of group matches and we now want to go further.,” he said.
“The whole team is working very hard to make this achievable. The management is allocating all the necessary resources to help the technical bench and the coach while the players are working hard in the training.”
Nzau indicated that Tusker is known to play better football and from next season, they want to make that narrative better by winning trophies locally and continentally.
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