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Mutai has revealed why both the East Africa Pamoja bid, as well as the plan to make Safari Sevens get back to the heights of attracting a large crowd of spectators could help the union in bidding for a HSBC World Sevens annual leg in future.
Kenya Rugby Union chairman Shasha Mutai has revealed why both the East Africa Pamoja bid and the plan to restore Safari Sevens to its former glory in terms of attracting a large crowd of spectators could help the union in bidding for an annual leg of the HSBC World Sevens in the future.
The Kenya Rugby Union chairman Alexander ‘Shasha’ Mutai has said that there is a plan by the federation to bid to host one of the HSBC World Sevens Series legs in the long term should Kenya Shujaa return to the premier competition after getting relegated in May this year.
Mutai, who was elected as the new union chairman in March this year, was speaking during the union's announcement at the EABL headquarters after signing a 15 million sponsorship deal. This deal will finance both the Elgon Cup, taking place in Kisumu this weekend, and the Safari Sevens tournament in Nairobi.
“The World Sevens Series teams are contracted from November until June,” Mutai said. “The window now is probably from July to October for the future,” he added.
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05:00 - 30.06.2023
RUGBY KRU boss Sasha Mutai reveals plan for attracting more sponsorships
This comes after SportPesa agreed to sponsor the National Sevens Circuit.
“We want to get Safari Sevens back because we have not had it for a number of years. So we are starting. Small steps but we (hope) it is going to be a successful event.”
“We are going to see some big teams, a lot of international players, but the main aim is also for Kenya to bid for a World Sevens Series event.”
Mutai said that the union made a good account of themselves to World Rugby when they hosted both the Barthes and World u20 Trophies this year, which could boost the country’s chances of hosting a HSBC World Sevens leg in future.
“I had discussions on that in Paris a couple of weeks back, but first of all, of course the sevens team has to qualify to get back to the World Sevens Series, which we are confident they will qualify, as well as the Lionesses.
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14:00 - 08.11.2023
RUGBY KRU seals partnership worth millions with EABL ahead of Safari Sevens tournament
Kenya Rugby Union pockets Ksh. 15 million to cover both the Safari Sevens and the Elgon Cup event this November after sealing deal with EABL.
“ We are also looking at developing our stadia hopefully by 2026.So that is a longer term plan. Our short term plan is to grow Safari Sevens to be the tournament it used to be. It used to be the Tusker Safari Sevens which was a big tournament.”
Mutai believes that the East Africa Pamoja Bid by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that saw the region win the bid to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will help boost the country’s infrastructure, which in turn will bost the country’s chances of hosting a leg in future.
“We need to show that we can host a big sevens event. We have hosted the World u20 Trophy this year successfully which left World Rugby impressed despite the political issues engulfing the country at the time.
“ We still hosted it well and they were happy and also hosted the Barthes Cup earlier. The capability of the Kenya Rugby Union to host global events is well known and we have shown it and it is exemplified by the successful tournaments that we have hosted this year.
The soft-spoken chairman has said that the union is looking to get Safari Sevens get back to the heights it showed before 2024 when it could attract a large crowd on an annual basis in order to see if the numbers can be sustainable in order to bid to host a world circuit leg.
“We want to get Safari Sevens back and surpass the levels that we had prior to 2014. It was a big tournament and we could attract 48,000 spectators on a weekend. We are looking forward to getting to those levels and even surpassing them.
“With that, we will be able to know whether we are able to host a world sevens series here, another one for Africa (after the Cape Town one) and we have the numbers, cause it is all about commerce basically, about the numbers.”
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