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Beldine Odemba feels the national women’s team will be the biggest winner following the stringent rules imposed on Premier League clubs.
Harambee Junior Starlets head coach Beline Odemba feels the national team will be the biggest beneficiary of the regulation requiring all men’s teams to have a women’s side.
Odemba, who was recently appointed the new head coach of Kenya Police Bullets FC (formerly Thika Queens), feels Harambee Starlets will be having a huge pool of talent to choose from since there will be plenty of teams churning out good players regularly.
FKF Premier League teams have been in a rush to acquire women’s sides in a bid to comply with the stringent Club Licensing rules and Kenya Police FC set the ball rolling by roping in Thika Queens, before they changed their name, while Tusker FC acquired Division One side McMillan FC.
Gor Mahia have reportedly acquired Acakoro Ladies, Kakamega Homeboyz have Kakamega Starlets while AFC Leopards are drooling over Makolanders FC.
Odemba is particularly pleased with Tusker’s decision to acquire McMillan as she feels grassroots teams are the ones that give a lot of chances to raw talent, especially those coming from schools, and it is here where she feels with proper support, Harambee Starlets will reap big.
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14:29 - 10.07.2023
FOOTBALL ‘Long overdue’ - Kenya Police Bullets’ new coach lauds stringent regulations requiring men’s teams to have women’s sides
The experienced tactician feels women’s football will benefit greatly from having male’s sides supporting them
“A team down there taken good care of means there will be plenty of support in acquiring new talents. Tusker will fund McMillan which will make their work easy and it is from here that we will get players for the junior national teams who will then feed Harambee Starlets,” Odemba told Pulse Sports.
“For example, right now we have Corazone Aquino doing well in the national team but are we making the next Corazone? If we start now, in the next three years, we will have another Corazone in the national team. But it can only happen if we get young talents from the grassroots, so this regulation is very helpful.”
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16:57 - 17.06.2023
WPL WPL players explain why they support CAF’s directive on women’s teams from next season
The players feel the need for every men’s team to have a women’s side is long overdue as it will see a paradigm shift for the game in the country.
Odemba has plenty of experience in handling raw talent as she has not only led school teams to various national and regional competitions but also coached youth teams at Kariobangi Sharks and AFC Leopards before.
Harambee Starlets are set to start their qualification journey for the 2024 Africa Women's Cup of Nations in November after being drawn against Cameroon's Indomitable Lionesses for the first round of qualifiers last week.
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