THE inaugural BK International Western Tigers Football Club’s Super Eight knockout tournament was yesterday launched in the staffroom of the club’s sponsor, where a cheque covering the first prize of $500 000 was handed over.
Prior to receiving the cheque from Alexis Tiwari, daughter of Brian Tiwari, president of the host club and Attorney-at-Law Gordon Gilhuys informed the media on the plans for the tournament as well as the teams who will be competing in same.
“Today is a very important day for me. About two months ago I sat down with my fellow executives of the club and we decided to organise this tournament, not only to raise funds for our club, but also to give football fans in Georgetown a glimpse of what should have been the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) Premier League.”
He added, “Both the executives of the club and its patron Brian Tiwari accepted the proposal, with Tiwari deciding to sponsor the first prize for the tournament which will be played under the lights at the Georgetown Football Club ground.
With regard to security and medical services, systems are in place to ensure a smooth and efficient tournament which we anticipate will be one that will be incident- and corruption-free, as it is our aim to make it an annual feature on the football calendar.”
Prior to handing over the cheque, Alexis Tiwari congratulated BK International Western Tigers on winning the 2009 Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament and wished them all the best in the upcoming tournament.
The eight teams who will be competing for the first prize of $500 000 and a trophy are: Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United who are undoubtedly the top team in Guyana and who will be given the privilege of playing the first match, Santos, Pele, Riddim Squad, Fruta Conquerors, Sunburst Camptown, GDF and BK International Western Tigers.
Double-header fixtures will be the order on match days, with the dates for the tournament being November 24, 26 and 28 for the preliminaries, with the final and third place fixtures being contested on the December 5.
Prior to the commencement of the first match, there will be a march past of teams who will be met by officials from the tournament’s sponsors – Cummings Electrical, Ansa McAl, King’s Jewellery, Toucan Industries, Kei-shar’s and Exclusive Boutique just to name a few.
In giving the vote of thanks, vice president of Western Tigers Adepemo Peters said the club was happy and delighted to be associated with BK International and vowed to go out there and do their best in capturing the tournament which will be used as a warm-up to their defence of the Kashif and Shanghai title.