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The return of the Safaricom Chapa Dimba Football Championship for the fourth season is one of the best news to have happened to Kenyan football in recent times.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF), which launched the event in Nairobi last week in partnership with Safaricom, appears to have read the sign of the times when the national senior and junior teams need feeding systems to excel.

The tournament has been a crowd puller in the past and its benefits cannot be overemphasised but it is even greater contribution is in nurturing football talent at the grassroots. This is the surest way to develop the sport and make Kenya competitive.

One of the advantages of the championship is that it aims to provide a formal platform for scouts and coaches to tap new talent and build feeder systems for the Kenyan league clubs across the country, while also training a total of 250 coaches, who will in turn pass on their skills to youngsters under their charge.

In the past, the championship has churned out great players who have gone ahead to feature for Kenyan Premier League teams after outperforming their peers, thus earning call-ups in first eleven teams. Some of the players include Tusker FC striker David Majak and Gor Mahia scoring machine Benson Omala who is currently chasing the Golden Boot Award.

The benefits are incomplete without mention of season two when a partnership with LaLiga and FKF, saw the tournament engage over 1,700 teams and 40,000 players who played 6,000 matches in total. From this pool, 15 players were signed up to join the national women senior team Harambee Starlets, while three others won scholarships to USA and Sweden. What is needed, going forward, is for other corporate entities to come on board to promote youth football activities. This is the way to go if the country is to successfully support efforts from organisers of tournaments like Koth Biro in Nairobi, which are popular but do not always attract sponsorship.

Just to illustrate importance of the championship, in past Chapa Dimba editions, a total of 21 players were featured for the national. Under-20 team. If maintained, therefore, it has potential to open doors for young players to play abroad as well.