2011 KYFA Ladies Nationwide Football Tournament August 19 th 21 st Kisumu, Kenya Evaluation Report Compiled the KYFA Monitoring and Evaluation Department 1
Table of Contents 0.0 Table of contents 2 0.1 Acknowledgements 3 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1 Executive summary 5 2.0 Preparation for the tournament 6 2.1 Soccer fields 6 2.2 Awards 6 2.3 Referees 7 2.4 Invitation of teams 7 2.5 Publicity of the tournament 7 2.6 Staff preparedness 7 2.7 Lunch 7 2.8 Tournament rules and format6 7 2.9 Guests 7 3.0 The tournament and participants reactions 8 3.1 Turn out of teams 8 3.2 Pooling and fixtures 8 3.3 Refereeing 9 3.4 Field of play 10 3.5 Ages of participants 10 3.6 Dispute resolution during the tournament 11 3.7 Lunch 12 3.8 Match rules 12 3.9 Perceptions on performance of KYFA 13 3.10 Other activities 13 4.0 Achievements 14 5.1 Challenges 14 5.2 Recommendations 14 5.3 Conclusion 15 6.0 Annex 1 Key highlights of the tournament in pictures 16 6.1 Annex 2 The Tournament Evaluation Form 17 2
Acknowledgements The annual KYFA Ladies Nationwide Tournament is the product of a collaboration between multiple individuals and groups, requiring months of emails, planning meetings, and communication with stakeholders throughout Kenya and even the Netherlands. KYFA wishes to acknowledge the following people for their dedication to making the tournament a success: Mr. Henk Schuurs, who works tirelessly throughout the year to fundraise for the many prizes and gifts given to the top teams and players; and who comes to Kisumu every year to be a part of the tournament. United Millers, for their generous donation of 600 loaves of bread that helped feed 400 girls for three days. Norda Industries, makers of Footballz, for their donation of 400 maize snacks. Kisumu Day High School and Highway Primary School, for their hospitality in accommodating teams from outside Kisumu. Christian Aviza and Kelsey Moore of Coaches Across Continents (U.S.), for leading the visiting coaches in a fun and educational training session following the first day of the tournament. Lynette Odida, the Kisumu North District Gender and Social Development Officer, for attending the Opening Session and encouraging the girls in their commitment to sports. Joffrey Bukachi, the Kisumu North District Sports Officer, for representing the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs during the Closing Ceremony. 3
1.0 Introduction Kisumu Youth Football Association (KYFA) was founded in 2004 with 12 informal youth football teams from low income urban and peri-urban areas of Kisumu City. Given the lack of out of school recreational opportunities for youths, the founding teams and their unemployed coaches set up a football competition to positively utilize their free time. Since then KYFA has expanded into a youth sports for development organization combining a community based infrastructure for football competitions with life skills and leadership programmes and technical football training. Over the last three years alone, KYFA has run weekly youth football competitions for youth between 8-18 years of age in five zones (major informal settlements) for nine months in a year. In addition to the league competitions, KYFA has also been organizing tournaments targeting different groups of children within the community. These include an annual Special needs football tournament (which offer opportunity to children with special needs to play as well as create awareness on their abilities and rights), an annual Peace tournament and an annual nationwide ladies football tournament in August of every year. A handshake after a match The KYFA annual nationwide ladies tournament was first played in 2008 in partnership with one of the local football teams, Galactico United and Mr. Henk Schuurs. It was seen then as an ideal platform for hundreds of ladies around the country to showcase their immense football talents. The event also sought to increase public awareness, participation and support to ladies football. In 2008, the tournament attracted 16 ladies teams from Nairobi, Kilifi, Eldoret, Kisii and Nyanza. Around 360 girls participated in the event. In 2009, another 16 teams participated in the event. In 2010, a total of 13 teams participated in the tournament, representing a drop by three teams. A total of 20 teams attended the 2011 edition of the tournament representing the highest number ever registered in this annual ladies football event. 4
The theme of 2011 annual ladies nationwide tournament was play for peace regardless of tribe or age. Considering that there were participants from numerous tribes as well as different parts of the country, KYFA believed that the three day football extravaganza would be helpful in fostering peaceful coexistence amongst girls from different communities represented in the event. 1.1 Executive summary Kisumu Youth Football Association (KYFA) successfully organized the annual KYFA Ladies Nationwide Tournament on 19 th to 21 st August, 2011 at Kisumu Polytechnic and Kisumu Day grounds respectively. The theme of the 2011 event was playing for peace irrespective of tribe or age. Considering that the tournament attracted teams from at least five different communities, KYFA saw its potential to be utilized as a platform for peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst youths from different communities. All the players were advised to share messages of peaceful co-existence not only during the tournament but also after the event with their community members wherever they came from. The tournament was divided into two main categories: under 15 category played on a seven aside basis and free age category played on eleven aside basis. Ten teams participated in each of the two categories. There was an extra free age team from Molo, the Rift Valley that came on the second day of the tournament and thus could not participate in the tournament. The ten teams in each age category were grouped into two pools of five teams each. A total of 40 matches were played at group matches, 20 matches in the two categories respectively. Eight quarter final, four semi final and two final matches were played. In line with the tournament format, teams that lost at the quarter final stage played semi final and final matches in the losers bracket. In the free age category, Victoria, Kisii United, Ibinzo Girls, Vihiga Hot Stars and Suba Lakers emerged first, second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. In the under 15 category, Victoria F.C, Port Florence, Suba Lakers, Kassagam and Ring road emerged first, second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. Naomi Kinanga of Kisii United was named Best Goalkeeper while Eunice Msimbi of Victoria was named Best Player in the free age category. In the under 15 category, Alicent Awuor of Suba Lakers was named Best Player while Mercy Adhiambo of Ring Road United was named Best Goalkeeper. There were a number of challenges encountered in the course of the tournament. These included wet fields at Polytechnic and complaints that fixtures were delayed and were wrong at the match-ups at the semi-final levels. There were also complaints on the ages of players during the tournament. Other challenges are in the body of the report. 5
The report recommends amongst other things generation and approval of fixtures by all coaches before the matches. It also recommends that all under 15 players to produce birth certificates before being allowed to play. 2.0 Preparation for the tournament Preparation for the tournament commenced as early as November of 2010 during the annual strategic planning meeting. However, the actual planning began in March of 2011 with the first invitation sent out to KNSDP partner organizations. The following core areas of planning were undertaken. 2.1 Soccer fields Jomo Kenyatta Sports ground was initially booked to host the tournament. However, Copa Coca Cola organizers came later and booked the field for their competitions. Moi Stadium, which had also been reserved by the association for the tournament, was also taken in the last minute by a larger event lasting for seven days. The association therefore only managed to secure Kisumu Polytechnic and Kisumu Day fields for the event. 2.2 Awards The tournament awards were to be supplied by Mr. Henk, Schuurs one of the major donors for the tournament. He committed to present the following (a)trophies for the first four teams in both categories (b) Uniforms for the first two teams in both categories 6
(c) Cash awards for the first four teams in both categories (d) Awards for the best players, best goalkeepers and youngest players (e) Awards for the winners in the losers bracket. Other awards including balls, certificates and bags were to be provided by KYFA. 2.3 Referees There were elaborate preparations by referees for the tournament. A refresher course for referees was done on the eve of the tournament to ensure competent officiation. 2.4. Invitation of teams As had been mentioned earlier, invitation of teams to the tournament started as early as March. Over forty teams were invited for the tournament. Invitation forms were uploaded on KYFA website for teams to download. Teams that had e-mail addresses received their invites via e-mail. 2.5 Publicity of the tournament Posters of the tournament were posted in the KYFA office for Kisumu teams. A facebook page on the tournament was created to reach out to as many teams and fans as possible. KYFA website also had tournament information. On the eve of the event, media briefs were sent out to local and regional media houses. The Standard, one of the mostly read newspapers in Kenya carried a short story on the tournament. The media briefs on the tournament were also carried on Kenyan online media sites like futaa.com. Radio Lake Victoria, a local radio station also aired news on the tournament. 7
2.6 Staff and volunteers preparedness for the tournament KYFA staffs were centrally involved in the entire tournament planning process. Tasks and duties during the tournament days were also divided amongst different staff members. And for the first time, several volunteers were brought on board to help in general event management including dispute resolution and first aid. 2.7 Food/Lunch Requests for food donations were sent out to United Millers and Ferries Finest. United Millers pledged to provide bread for the whole tournament duration. Ferries Finest on the other hand pledged to supply bread on the first day of the tournament and have KYFA buy bread for the other two days from them. Considering that all the required bread supply was being provided by United Millers, KYFA management requested Ferries Finest to consider donating to the association during future events. 2.8 Tournament rules and format The tournament rules and regulations were developed and given out to teams with the invitation letters. In terms of the format, there was an introduction of the losers bracket after the quarter finals. This was expected to give as many teams as possible an opportunity to play and win matches. Fixtures were to be developed after the registration of teams. 2.9 Guests Provincial Director of Sports and District Sports Officers were amongst a host of visitors invited to the tournament. They were expected to help give government and corporate support to the ladies during the tournament 3.0 The tournament and participants reactions on the tournament 3.1 Turn out of teams A total of 20 teams participated in the tournament, ten free age and ten under fifteen. However, an extra one team came for the tournament late on Saturday and thus they could not participate. A total of 288 girls participated in the tournament. The table below shows attendance of the tournament over the last three years by teams. 8
A summary of number of teams since 2008 Year No. of teams 16 16 13 20 2008 2009 2010 2011 1 2 3 4 3.2 Pooling and fixtures The teams in both categories were pooled into two groups of five teams each after randomly picking papers. A fixture of group matches was developed and distributed to teams. At the end of the group matches, fixtures for the quarter finals, the semis and the finals including the loser s bracket were developed and distributed. However, a few teams expressed reservations on the fixtures. Some teams expected to receive a complete fixture at the beginning of the group matches. One team on the other hand felt that the semi final matchups in the fixtures were wrong. His contention was that teams that had topped their groups ought not to meet at all until the finals. In the fixtures, teams that topped their groups met at the semi final stage of the tournament. Some teams played as many as four matches on the second day yet they played only one match on the first day. This was a major source of concern for most of the teams. In a scale of 1-5, participants ranked fixtures generation, timing of matches and distribution of the fixtures to teams at 3 which is on a scale developed by the Monitoring and Evaluation Department. 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Series1 Excellent above Average Below Poor Fixtures 9
3.3 Refereeing There were only two formal complaints raised about officiation during the tournament. One concerned alleged allowing of a goal by a referee that was not scored on a justification that it had passed through a torn net. The other concerned a referee s failure to call for fouls in instances of dangerous play. There were however several verbal complaints on officiation from coaches across the touch lines. While this is expected in football, some coaches however went to the extreme by verbally exchanging with referees in an aggressive manner in the field when calls were made against them. And in a few instances, the referees also retorted back either during matches or after the final whistles. The table below shows what 35 participants, all coaches and captains felt about officiation. 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Series1 Excellent above Average Below Poor Refereeing 3.4 Fields of play The tournament was hosted at Kisumu Day and Kisumu Polytechnic grounds. The proximity of the fields to each other was ideal for management of all field logistics during the tournament. However, part of Kisumu Day field was stony and thus posed mild danger to players. Kisumu Polytechnic fields on the other hand were wet and a little swampy throughout the three days of the tournament. The table (down) shows thoughts of 35 participants including coaches and players about the fields. 10
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Series1 Excellent above Average Below Poor Fields 3.5 Ages of participants Vetting of players in the under 15 category was not done on the first day. This elicited complaints from two teams about ages of some of the players from particular teams. On the second and third day, all players in the under 15 category were vetted before the kick-off of their matches. However, even though the tournament rules had required all teams to provide birth certificates for the players, only one birth certificate was produced during the entire vetting exercise. The vetting committee relied majorly on the physical attributes of the players in estimating their ages. For KYFA players, the vetting committee relied on KYFA cards. The margin of error was big according to four coaches interviewed. These are the perceptions of participants interviewed on the issue of age 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Series1 Excellent above Average Below Poor Ages of participants 3.6 Dispute resolution during the tournament All written complaints were addressed through open discussions by KYFA staff. Amongst complaints raised, two issues came up where the complainants did not accept the verdict of the KYFA staff. The first concerned an allegation by a coach that the fixture for the semis was wrong. The coach s contention was that teams that had topped their groups should never meet in the semi final in a tournament of two pools. 11
The position of the competitions officer and the M&E Officer was that while that coach s suggestion was an alternative, KYFA s position was that the fixture as produced was equally acceptable. After further research and borrowing heavily from tournaments organized by Mathare Youth Sports Association, the M&E Officer is persuaded that in majority of tournaments involving two pools and where quarter matches are played, pool leaders if they have to meet can only do so at the finals. The pairings at the quarter final and semi final levels should uphold this. The other complaint had to do with one of the coach s refusal that a goal had not been scored and pulling his players from the field of play in protest. After going through the facts of the match, KYFA staff held the position of match officials that the goal counted. The volunteers selected to help in dispute resolution were also not actively engaged in either identifying disputes or resolving disputes. 25 20 These are the perceptions of the participants on the process of dispute resolution 15 10 5 Series1 0 Excellent above Average Below Poor Dispute resolution 3.7 Lunch Lunch was provided to eighteen players and two coaches per team for all the teams that attended the tournament. It consisted of bread, a packet of milk, a banana, water and an egg. The bread donation was from United Millers Limited. There was no complaint on the lunch provisions. All participants interviewed felt that lunch provisions were excellent. One coach commented, My players have never seen so much food at a tournament! 12
Soccer Queens from Nairobi are all smiles with United Bread 3.8 Match rules All match rules were formally written and given out to teams together with the invitation letters. The tournament was thus conducted under these rules. However, there were complaints that it was not specified that quarter final matches would be played or the format to be adopted after the group matches. There were also complaints that the twenty minutes duration of matches was too short. In sum, these were the responses of thirty five participants interviewed. 25 20 15 10 5 Series1 0 Excellent above Average Below Poor Enforcement of Match rules 13
3.9 Perceptions on performance of KYFA as the tournament organizer KYFA staff and volunteers were collectively involved in all tournament activities. There were also trained first aiders who provided first aid to all the injured players. The table below shows the perceptions of 35 participants on the performance of KYFA as the tournament organizer. 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Series1 Excellent above Average Below Poor Performance of KYFA 3.10 Other tournament activities There was a short coaching training facilitated by Coaches across Continents at Kisumu Polytechnic grounds at the end of matches on the first day of training. There was also ball juggling competition amongst players on the first day of the competitions with the winners going home with sports bras and sanitary pads. On Saturday night, KYFA also showed a movie to the players that were camping at Kisumu Day. The participants felt that these additional activities were truly entertaining. 4.0 Major achievements 1. There was an improvement from 13 to 20 in the number of teams that participated in the tournament compared to 2010 2. Stronger teams including Kisii Ladies, Victoria F.C and TYSA made the tournament more competitive compared to the previous year. 3. There were teams from Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and Nairobi provinces during the tournament thus giving it a national outlook. 4. There were other entertaining activities during the tournament that were well received by the participants. These included ball juggling competition, coaching training session and a movie night. 5. United Millers came on board and provided bread for lunch for the three days of the tournament. 14
5.0 A summary of major challenges encountered during the tournament 1. The Kisumu Polytechnic fields were wet throughout the tournament while a section of Kisumu Day field was stony. This was identified by most teams to have affected the flow of their matches negatively. 2. The perception that the fixture for the semis was wrongly constructed brought confusion on the third day of the tournament while most coaches on the other hand expected full fixtures immediately after the registration process. 3. A huge number of matches on the second day (up to four matches) were a challenge to most teams. 4. The process of identifying actual ages for all girls playing in the under 15 category was a major challenge to the vetting committee. There was only one birth certificate presented. 5. Verbal disagreements and exchanges between coaches and referees during matches was also a challenge in a few matches. 6. Other tournaments in August prevented other quality teams from participating in the event. Sakata National Tournament and Ladies Premier League fixtures prevented Soccer Sisters and Moving the Goalposts respectively from attending the tournament. 6.0 Recommendations 1. Fixtures Tentative fixtures for all matches should be developed before commencement of the tournament. The same should be discussed and approved by the coaches in a meeting before the first match is played. 2. Match rules and regulations A clear format for the tournament should be decided beforehand. This should specify whether quarter final matches are played or not. A consideration for extension of the duration of matches if time is available should be considered. 3. Fields of play Arrangements for fields for the competitions should be commenced as early as possible and legal and binding agreements signed for the same. 4. Ages of participants for the under 15 category It should be compulsory for any under 15 player to carry a birth certificate before being allowed to participate in the tournament. 6. Dispute Resolution There is need to involve more volunteers in spotting issues that bring conflicts during the tournament. They should be able to play a role in conflict prevention as opposed to resolution. These volunteers must be visible to all the participants. 15
7. A consideration should be made as to whether August is ideal for the tournament considering that there are several other tournaments and competitions. 7.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the 2011 KYFA ladies nationwide tournament was a big improvement compared to the 2010 edition. 20 teams participated compared to 13 in 2010. Most of the challenges encountered last season were also overcome this season. Teams were invited much earlier and there were more competitive teams compared to 2010. Referees were better prepared for the tournament and their performance during the same was an improvement compared to 2010. United Miller s three days supply of bread to the players helped in covering lunch costs. Figure 1Kisumu East District Sports Officer hands out a trophy to Port Florence U15 captain However, a few challenges were encountered during the tournament. A clarification of the tournament format and coming up with an objective process of age verification must be undertaken. Appropriate interventions must be prioritized to address other challenges highlighted above. 16
Annex 1: Key highlights of the tournament in pictures Left, Mr. Henk Schuurs hands out an award to the best goal keeper, U15. Above, these coaches are all smiles while below, Victoria F.C, the dancing champs 17
Annex 2: The KYFA Ladies Nationwide Tournament Evaluation Form Kisumu Youth Football Association 2011 KYFA Ladies Nationwide Tournament Post-Tournament Evaluation Form Part A 1. Kindly share with us your observations and experiences on the following areas during KYFA Ladies Nationwide Tournament by ticking appropriately in the table below. Description 1. Refereeing / Officiation 2. Pooling and fixtures 3. Enforcement of match rules and tournament regulations 4. Conditions and accessibility of the fields of play 5. Ages of participants (for under 15 Category) 6. Fairness and overall performance of KYFA as the main organizer of the tournament: 7. Team and individual awards: 8. Dispute resolution during the tournament: 9. Lunch: 10. Additional activities during the tournament e.g. coaching course and fun games/activities Part B 2. What did you enjoy during this tournament? Very Poor Poor Average Above Excellent (a) (b) 3. What didn t you like during the tournament? (a) (b) 3. Comment on areas that need improvement during the 2012 tournament. (a) (b) Thanks for participating. Hope to see you again next year! 18