01 Jul 2014

This time around it was not Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), but football for children as 96 children gathered at the Botswana National Youth Centre (BNYC) for the KFC football tournament on June 28.

The “chefs” and the customers of the chicken franchise and coaches from the Botswana Football Association (BFA) also came in large numbers to give the children, aged between 10-14 years a finger licking taste of football.

This was an opportunity for children to take part in the tournament dubbed “five-a-side” whose main objective was not just for the children to make friends but to develop football skills.

The event was firstly introduced in Namibia and Botswana was the second country to host it before it could be rolled out to various markets across Africa.

Assistant KFC brand manager (Botswana), Kgomotso Garebakwena said it was high time KFC gave back to the community for their support over the years. “This are our future customers, and by this outreach programme, we are actually engaging the young market for a healthy lifestyle,” she said.

She said KFC has seen it fit to develop children at the grassroots level, and that they were planning to hold the event annually. To enter, a customer brings a receipt of their purchase from a KFC branch which allows them to enter their offspring who fits the age group criteria.

The children in turn get 60 seconds to score as many goals in a virtual X-Box connected game. This was done for three weeks with the top 96 scorers then recruited to pay in the Football Beat Five-A-Side tournament.

The selected players were divided into 16 teams with eight games played in the morning and eight games in the afternoon with coaches from the BFA taking charge of the different sides.

In the U-14 boys category, Bakwena Football Club emerged the 2014 KFC Football Beat Championships after beating Peermont Chiefs 6-0. In the U-10 boys, Wolf Rangers beat the Zebras 1-0 while the under 10 girls was won by Cosmetic Stars 3-1 against Red Beshers after a penalty shootout.

Botswana’s KFC ambassadors musicians, Eugene Jackson and Charma Girl are also involved in the project. ENDS