… Registration closes tomorrow
TELECOMMUNICATIONS service provider Digicel (Guyana) Limited yesterday launched its first-ever nationwide Inter-Secondary School football tournament with a simple ceremony held at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground. Digicel’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gregory Deen told those gathered, including General Secretary of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) George Rutherford, and Digicel’s Head of Marketing, Jacqueline James, the idea of the tournament for which registration closes tomorrow, was born two years ago.
“The idea for this tournament came from our head of marketing two years ago. We did some research and after going back and forth, we came up with this tournament which will involve all 10 Administrative Regions in Guyana, as we did not wish to leave anybody out,” said Deen.
He continued, “The decision was finalised four months ago and initially, we had targeted 100 schools. Up to this morning, we had received 97 applications which reached 118 at the time of the launching, so that alone tells me that the interest in the tournament is high among the students.”
Deen used the Digicel/Jamaica Secondary Schools football tournament as an example, citing the success story behind the tournament, which was used to feed the clubs and later on national teams of the Reggae Island and yearned for the day when same occurs in Guyana.
“I am not saying that from this tournament Guyana’s football will get an overnight change, but when you look at what has taken place in Jamaica from their schools tournament, wherein their national team has been successful in times past, we at Digicel are looking for the same with Guyana’s football.
“With that in mind, this tournament will be here to stay, and no, we will not be taking or intend to take anything away from the Scotiabank/Pepsi Under-15 tournament, but rather look back at this inaugural tournament next year, see what needs to be strengthened and make it a bigger and better tournament as the years go by.”
Technical Director of the tournament, Lavern Fraser-Thomas, said the tournament which will be played on a knock-out basis, will have preliminary matches played in all 10 Administrative Regions of Guyana, from which a Regional champion will emerge.
“We are looking to have the schools battle for supremacy within their respective regions, out of which we will have a regional champion, who will go forward to do battle with the other regional champions in the end, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and final being played in Georgetown.”
Trophies and replicas will be distributed to the eventual winners, with the respective regional winners receiving trophies.
The tournament has the blessing of the GFF, the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Football Referees Council and is an Under-19 one, where students born on or after January 1, 1992, are eligible to represent their school.
Matches in the preliminary round will last for 70 minutes, while the full 90-minutes rule will be in effect from the quarter-final stage. The competition, is set to kick-off next Friday and culminate one month later. The Guyana National Stadium, Providence, will be the likely venue for the semifinals and finals.