Youngsters who won the inaugural Talanta Hela Under 19 football tournament will walk to the bank smiling as the eagerly awaited disbursement of their well-deserved winnings is scheduled to commence today.In a statement seen by Mozzart Sport, the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports through the Kenya Academy of Sports attributed the delay to some athletes’ failure to submit their bank account information on time.##NAJAVA_MECA_7855108##However, there is now a silver lining as 30% of the athletes have successfully submitted their banking information. The disbursement process is now poised to kick off in the Central Rift and Western regions. Those without bank accounts have been urged to open to speed up the process.“The Academy has sent some of its officers to begin the process in the Central Rift and Western regions from Friday 9 February to Saturday 10 February,” read part of the statement.The curtains of the competitive inter-county tournament rolled down on December 12, 2023, with Homabay winning the men’s category after beating Kisumu 4-2 in the final while Busia emerged victorious in the girl’s category after dazzling Kisumu 2-1.At the same time, the Ministry has announced plans to host bigger and better editions of the tournament this year.Kajiado FC rope in 18 players ahead of crucial second-legPlans are also unfolding to involve more disciplines in the highly competitive youngster’s tournament.According to the Cabinet Secretary (CS) in charge of Creative Economy, Youth Affairs, and Sports Ababu Namwamba, the Talanta Hela tournament started with football due to the sorry state of the sport when he came into office. The country was serving a ban from the international football governing body; FIFA.With the ban now behind his back, the CS pointed out that plans were underway to make the tournament more vibrant.“Talanta Hela is not restricted just to football. We started with football because, when I came into the office, it had sunk the lowest. We have been able to rescue football with the lifting of the FIFA suspension, and we have brought money back to the league.“The plan is to do this with the rest of the games, and we are already doing something with rugby with the workaround, Chipu. We will slowly move this to all other sports,” CS Ababu noted.FKF Election Bombshell: Sports Registrar rules Nick Mwendwa ineligible for re-runHow the monies will be disbursed:All regional winners (comprising 12 girls’ teams and 12 boys’ teams) to receive 500,000/- each, totaling to 12 millionPosition 1 to receive 5 millionPosition 2 to receive 3 millionPosition 3 to receive 2 millionPosition 4 to receive 1 millionThe total amount for awards for the national tournament is 22 million.Overall, Ksh34 million will be used for awards to the regional and national winners.
