By OUR CORRESPONDENT
The second edition of the Betika Meru Football Challenge is set to culminate this Sunday at the Kinoru Stadium, with a prize pool of KES 3.5 million up for grabs in the tournament which kicked off last month.
The winners, both men and women, will take home KES 1 million. The first and second runners-up, both men and women, will each be awarded KES 500,000 and KES 250,000, respectively. The semifinals will be played on Saturday before paving the way for the finals on Sunday.
Mitunguu United and Kibirichia Starlets were the winners in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively during the inaugural event last year, seeing off Black Panther and Skyler in the finals.
The Meru Football Challenge is an annual tournament held in Meru County under the Betika na Community initiative with the purpose of identifying, promoting, and nurturing talent within the region.
Betika Brand Manager Erick Mwiti said: “We are excited to be back in Meru for the second edition of the Meru Football Challenge. Once again, prizes for both men and women will be equal, just like we have done in our engagements as we believe in equal rewarding.
This is our second time here this year. Remember, we were at this same venue in February for BingwaFest where we experienced a massive turnout. We look forward to a weekend of good football and call upon fans from Meru to show up in large numbers to cheer their teams on Sunday during the finals.”
Just like in the first edition, a total of 48 teams were involved this time around, where 32 teams featured in the men’s tournament while 16 competed in the women’s competition starting from the preliminaries stages all the way to the knockouts. All teams participating in the competition were fully kitted and provided with balls.
FKF Meru County Branch Vice Chairman Elias Murega said: “We are happy to have Betika back in Meru for yet another football tournament. This tournament brings together teams from across Meru County, a testament that we are not short of football talent in Meru. We look forward to a very good footballing weekend.”
The finals will be followed by a massive afterparty headlined by Alikiba alongside performances by Breeder LW, Maandy, Toxic Lyricali, and Meru’s very own Nassizu Murume.
In February this year, Kinoru Stadium hosted the finals of the Mountain Region Betika BingwaFest which was won by home teams AL Azizia FC and Gachanka Queens.
