… Bugle to perform on night of finals
YESTERDAY a crowded boardroom at the Princess Hotel and Casino bore witness to the official launching of the inaugural Guinness Street Football Challenge Regional Competition which gets under way tonight with what is expected to be five entertaining matches at the National Park tarmac. The teams will be vying for the ‘Greatest Title’ are Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and Antigua, with Haiti unable to do so due to flight problems.
Tonight’s action is set to kick off at 19:00hrs with the opening match between St Lucia and St Vincent, followed by host team Guyana taking on Antigua, then T&T against St Lucia.
The other two showdowns of the night will see Antigua go head-to-head with St Vincent from 21:00hrs, while the night wraps up with Guyana taking on T&T.
Occupying the head table at yesterday’s media update were Banks DIH Sales and Marketing Executive Carlton Joao, Guinness Regional Manager Gareth Geddes, Banks DIH Guinness Brand Manager Lee Baptiste, Co-coordinator Marlon Cole and Banks DIH PRO Troy Peters.
In his brief remarks, Joao expressed sincere regrets that Haiti could not be part of the tournament.
He added, “It has been a great journey since we started the first-ever Guinness Greatest in the Street Competition in 2009 which was a phenomenal success. Since then we have developed the sport and it became institutionalised and moved to other areas in the country.”
Now, he said, this is their first regional project as they take it beyond the shores of Guyana which he thinks should make Guyanese proud. All the teams recently won their national championship and are on top of their game.
However, he said Guyana have been doing their preparation having numerous practice sessions and matches and he expects them to move on to better things and achieve greatest.
He added that security will be air-tight for the tournament which will have tickets sold at the venue for $500 on the first two nights and $1 000 for the grand final night where Jamaican artiste ‘Bugle’ will perform.
When Geddes spoke, he said, “The passion in Guyana that we have seen in Guinness Greatest of the Street competition is unrivalled and there is no other fitting place I could think of to host this Regional football competition, bringing together the best street football teams in the region”.
“The vision is to make this an annual tournament and we want the standards to be set very high in this inaugural tournament and I am certain that the teams will be working very hard to make that happen,” he said.
According to Geddes, the big picture is really about the communities because Guinness is a brand supported mainly by consumers in communities, that is why a lot of emphasis was placed on the grand prize of having a Street Football Pitch built in the community of the winning team.
Geddes disclosed that achieving that feat will give the players on the winning team legendary status and they will make sure that happens by engraving the names of those players on the pitch.
Meanwhile, the tournament continues tomorrow at the same times as tonight, with Antigua opposing T&T, Guyana going up against St Vincent, Antigua meeting St Lucia, T&T clashing with St Vincent and Guyana going head-to-head against St Lucia.
At the end of the preliminary round which will see each team play four matches, the top team will play the fourth-placed in one semifinal while second- and third-placers will meet in the other. The winners clash in the final and the losers meet for third place.