Kenya Premier League has appointed former Harambee Stars striker Taiwo Atieno as the new Commercial Director.
According to KPL The resolution to appoint Taiwo was made by the Directors of the Kenyan Premier League Limited on November 2, 2021.
Taiwo played professional football for 15 years in England and the USA, he retired in 2013 and embarked on working in the Private Equity Sector restructuring and building companies in England, USA and Kenya for private equity investment.
“It is an honour to serve Kenyan football in this new role. I pledge to apply my experience in my new role to uplift Professional football clubs in Kenya. Kenyan football has seen little or no investment iN youth football.”
“Clubs should start developing players from a very early age and with it apply a broad system of education for young people to develop throughout their time with the club. This has been the best practice for most successful football teams with a lot of attention on the non-sporting part of a player’s development. In most cases where clubs do not have a strong academy, they can have partnerships with other academies to help create a pool of talented young players,” Taiwo stated.
The Commercial Director’s main role will be to raise investment for construction of new youth training and development facilities, assist the Company and Member Clubs with establishing funding and investment, best corporate governance and football business structuring, rebuild market confidence in member clubs’ goods and services, ensure market fit of products and services for member clubs and maximize commercial revenue for the Company and Member Clubs.
As Commercial Director of KPL Taiwo will work with Member professional clubs to build strategic plans with a strong emphasis on Youth Training and Development in Kenya / East Africa.
He is expected to identify and implement new business opportunities like multi-sports division for KPL Member clubs such a model expected to get more young people playing sports.
Taiwo will also ensure the market fit of products and services for each Member club is based on current sector trends and anticipated future market developments.
He will also implement KPL Communities Strategy, which will focus on using the reach and appeal of the KPL and Member clubs to inspire children and young people aged 5 to 25 to realise their potential.
KPL has agreed to focus on youth development within the professional club setup and also work with the small Clubs
In addition, KPL in collaboration with other stakeholders shall organize youth football tournaments. KPL will also establish a Charitable fund and use the appeal of professional football to create positive and lasting sporting, health and education outcomes for children, young people and the wider communities in Kenya and East Africa.
Taiwo who grew up loving football was fortunate enough to play for teams from the age of 8 years becoming the first non-born Kenyan to play professionally in England Football Leagues.
Taiwo regards some of his proudest moments in football as the first time he represented Harambee Stars in 2009/10 World Cup Qualifiers.