Kenya– Ulinzi Stars FC Chief Executive Officer, Maj. Godwin Baraza was relatively satisfied with the SportPesa Shield draw that was held on Monday afternoon at a Nairobi hotel.
The military side received a rather favourable draw as they were paired with Kitale based side, Trasnmillan FC in the first round of the competition.
In an interview, Major Baraza termed it an exciting pairing but cautioned his charges against underrating the little known side.
“It is an exciting draw; we will be going to Kitale and it is an interesting game considering these are two very different teams. Last time we went to Kabarnet in this tournament and we saw the excitement the team had to play Ulinzi Stars and one thing to note is that such teams really push themselves. So this a good draw.
“Every team goes to these games to win; it is a knockout competition and there may be surprises but we want to cushion ourselves from that,” he said.
Ulinzi were runners-up in 2016 edition of the competition where they represented the country in CAF Confederation Cup last year, after the domestic cup winners Tusker FC opted to take part in prestigious Champions League.
However, Major Baraza has promised that this time round his men will give their best for a chance to represent Kenya in the continental showpiece again.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“We will be 100% focused on this tournament because it comes with a good offer – that of playing continental football. Last year when we played in the Confederations Cup it was because of this competition and we want to go even further.[/perfectpullquote]
“We have good support from the management; our sponsors The KDF, Elitebet are all looking at a situation where Kenya will be represented by Ulinzi Stars so we will not let them down,” he added.
The winner of the tournament, which is scheduled to kick off on June 1, 2018, is set to pocket Ksh 2 Million prize money. The runners-up are set to pocket Ksh 1 Million with the third-placed and fourth-placed teams taking home Ksh 750,000 and Ksh 500,000 respectively.
