FINALLY and after several hiccups, this year’s 20th annual Mayor’s Cup Football tournament, organised by known football enthusiast and former national player/coach Lennox Arthur, will kick off next Saturday at the Victoria Community Centre ground, with a triple-header from 16:00hrs.

The tournament, which will be played on a knock-out basis to honour the birth anniversary of the Mayor of Georgetown His Worship Hamilton Greene, who celebrates his 80th birthday on November 9, will also see the defending champions and the nation’s number one team Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United defend their title won last year when they defeated Slingerz.
A total prize money of G$1M will be up for grabs in the tournament which was sanctioned by the-then Christopher Matthias-led Guyana Football Federation (GFF) before the intervention of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Head of Member Associations, Premo Cavaro, and CONCACAF Director of Legal Affairs, Marco Leal.
The winning team will receive $500 000, with the second-, third- and fourth-placed finishers pocketing $250 000, $150 000 and $100 000 respectively, with trophies accompanying all top four prizes.
In next Saturday’s triple-header, Mahaica Determinators will take on Golden Grove, Sparta United will face Ann’s Grove and Victoria Kings will match strides with Bakewell Buxton United in the feature match, which kicks off at 20:00hrs.
According to Arthur, the games will be of 90 minutes’ duration and if there is no result, two halves of 10 minutes each will be used as extra time and should a winner not be decided at this stage of the game, the referees shall use penalty kicks to arrive at a winner.
Each team is allowed three substitutions per game and should a player be shown a red card or two yellow cards, he will be faced with an automatic one-match suspension and if the red card demands further sanctioning, the Disciplinary Committee of the GFF shall sit and hear the matter accordingly.
A club will be allowed 22 players of which four can be guest players, providing their team is not in the competition. Only 18 players and four officials for each team will be allowed free entry to all matches they are involved in.
The issuing of gate passes becomes the responsibility of the respective teams. All teams must provide the organiser with an official team list 48 hours before their respective game.
An admission fee of $500 will be charged per entry for the first round and from quarterfinals to final, the admission fee will be $1 000.

(By Calvin Roberts)