Kothbiro football tournament is appealing for financial support ahead of its resumption this weekend.
The 45th edition of the annual tournament took a week-long break during the festive season but lack of funds is crippling its operations, according to tournament chairman Paul Polosa. The tournament which has entered the Round of 16, was expected to restart on Thursday.
"We are looking for at least Sh1million to help us make the tournament a success. Catering for officiating and security is always expensive," Polosa said.
"We are expecting the games to resume either on Saturday or Sunday subject to the availability of funding. We started off without any sponsorship but we used our own cash to run the tournament and our coffers have run dry."
He added:"We have written to the Ministry of Sports. We have also reached out to Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja who has really supported us in the past years. We have also approached SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri to help us clear some pending bills."
This year's edition registered a record 50 teams from Nairobi and Kajiado counties. This has surpassed the normal 32 teams the competition is associated with.
Koth Biro has nurtured some of the greatest stars in Kenyan football including former Harambee Stars captain Mike Okoth. Jamal Mohamed and former Bandari coach Rishadi Shedu also came to the limelight through Kothbiro.
