Unified Women Premier League set for November 13 kick-off
The 2021/2022 Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Women’s Premier League will revert to its traditional unified league and is tentatively scheduled to kick off on Saturday, November 13.
The federation had earlier proposed to have the new season kick-off on Saturday, October 30 but the dates were yet to be approved by the crucial women’s committee.
“Yes the dates are now approved, and the league will tentatively kick off on Saturday, November 13.
The early released dates were pending approval from the women’s committee,” FKF competition’s manager Frank Ogolla told People Sport.
It was further confirmed that the transfer window for the women teams will officially open today Friday, October 1, and will run for six weeks up to November 12 with fixtures for the new season set to be out before the end of next week.
It’s also confirmed that the league that has been played in two conferences of Zone A and B having eight teams per zone will now be unified and will be played in a home and away format with 12 teams taking part.
The newly adopted format means that the traditional end of the season play-offs which involved six teams of top three sides from both Zone A and B to determine the overall league season champion will not be there anymore since the team with the most points at the end of the season will be crowned champions and will have the honours of representing the country in CAF Women’s Club Champions League.
However, many stakeholders are hesitant of the unified league, citing the cost involved in ensuring that all the teams honour all the 22 league matches both at home and away from where some teams for example in Nairobi will need to travel to Kisumu, Vihiga, Trans Nzoia, and Nakuru to honour their away fixtures.
But responding on the issue, Ogolla made it clear that since the league is yet to get a sponsor, teams will have to get ready for the challenge ahead as the federation try their best, knocking on the sponsors’ doors to try and land sponsorship for the league, which will thus ease the burden on the teams.
“All teams are aware of the unified league because we already informed them.
Before the league kicked off last season, we communicated to the teams and told them the format of the league this season.
So in terms of travel, accommodations, and logistics, teams will have to be prepared well while we (federation) are going to pay for match officials, ambulance, ball girls, and security,” said Ogolla adding that for stadium fees, teams will have to cater for that.
Defending champions Thika Queens, Gaspo Women, Ulinzi Starlets, Kayole Starlets, and Zetech Sparks are the five teams that maintained their status in the top tier league and will join the now unified league from Zone A while former three-time league champions Vihiga Queens will lead four other teams of Nakuru Queens, Wadadia Ladies, Kisumu All Starlets and Trans Nzoia Falcons in forming the unified league from Zone B.
The promoted duo of Kangemi All Starlets and Bunyore Starlets will fill up the remaining two slots to make up a 12-team unified league after Kangemi emerged Zone A champions and Bunyore Zone B champions.
Six teams were relegated from the top tier league and include Makolanders Ladies who have been in the topflight football for 28 years and will now take part in the second-tier league FKF Women’s Division One League and are joined in the lower league by other relegated sides of Mathare United Women, Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, SEP Oyugis Girls, Eldoret Falcons, and Oserian Ladies.
