Former Harambee Stars and Luton Town player Taiwo Atieno has been appointed commercial director by the Kenyan Premier League Limited.

The resolution to appoint Taiwo was made by the KPL board of directors on 2nd November. The move, seemingly one to reinvigorate KPL came the same day as Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed formed a Caretaker Committee to run Kenyan football, negating the role of elected FKF officials.

“I pledge to apply my experience in my new role to uplift professional football clubs in Kenya. Kenyan football has seen little or no investment in youth football,” Taiwo said.

The commercial director’s main role will be to raise investment for construction of new youth training and development facilities, assist the company and member clubs with establishing funding and investment, best corporate governance and football business structuring.

He will also help rebuild market confidence in member clubs’ goods and services, ensure market fit of products and services for member clubs and maximize commercial revenue for the company and member clubs.

“The success of any nation depends on the youth and private sector should play a larger part in investing and shaping the brand of Kenyan football (as it does in the English Leagues). KPL has agreed to focus on youth development within the professional club setup and also work with the small clubs to build football academies and programs within their community,” said the 36-year-old.

“Clubs should start developing players from a very early age and with it, apply a broad system of education for young people to develop throughout their time with the club. This has been the best practice for most successful football teams with a lot of attention on the non-sporting part of a player’s development. In most cases where clubs do not have a strong academy, they can have partnerships with other academies to help create a pool of talented young players.”

As commercial director of KPL, Taiwo will work with member professional clubs to build strategic plans with a strong emphasis on youth training and development in Kenya and East Africa at large. He will identify and implement new business opportunities like multi-sports division for KPL.

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