The 2025/2026 Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League got underway yesterday with 18 teams battling for the country’s most coveted club football crown and the accompanying winner’s prize money of Sh15 million.

The league starts on a firm footing with multi-million-shilling broadcast and naming rights deals in place guaranteeing clubs, many of them perpetually hard up, some assured income. 

The new season begins just seven weeks after the successful co-hosting of the African Nations Championship (Chan) by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that brought back excited fans to our newly refurbished, CAF-certified stadium in their thousands.

A modest Harambee Stars defied the odds to reach the quarter-finals, reminiscent of the good old days when Kenyan football was up there with the best in Africa. Cleary talent abounds in Kenya.

The Football Kenya Federation should ride on the momentum created by Chan and build a league that will tap and nurture the best talent in the country while giving our budding stars an avenue to earn their fame and fortune.

The sponsorship money should be managed prudently to benefit the clubs, the players and indeed the game. It is up to the federation to also decide who should manage their top league even though world best practices show that it is better for such a competition to be managed by a private entity.

Clubs, many run like a personal kiosk, also need to urgently professionalise their operations. The potential benefits of a competently run league are boundless.