THE 3rd Annual Georgetown Football Association (GFA)/Banks Beer Knock-Out Football tournament will be launched today at the Princess Hotel, Providence, East Bank Demerara .

The tournament which will see 32 teams doing battle for top honours will culminate on January 1 with the final and third place play-off.
It is not known as yet what the prize monies are, but one can expect it to exceed last year’s figure.
There was some amount of doubt as to whether the tournament will be staged this year and these doubts arose after the newly elected executives of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) laid down special requirements for any organisation desirous of staging a tournament and these requirements must be met before the green light is given.
The GFA subsequently made a successful application as they were given the thumbs up from the GFF.
Prior to the GFA being given the go ahead, the Kashif and Shanghai organisation which has for the past 23 years ran off a successful year end tournament had applied to stage their 24th edition this year, but because they could not provide the GFF with all that was required of them, they were denied permission to stage their tournament which was conducted simultaneously with the GFA’s tournament during the past two years.
The GFA/Banks Beer tournament was inaugurated two years ago with the winning team (Alpha United) taking home $3M, while the runner up (Fruta Conquerors ) got $1.5M.
The third place team (Beacon) got $500,000 and the fourth place team (Sunburst Camptown ) received $250,000.
Because of its success, the Beverage `Giants’ Banks DIH, agreed to sponsor the tournament a second year and this time around they agreed to increase their sponsorship and apparently this created more spectator support, as the huge crowds that were the hallmark of the Kashif and Shanghai year end tournament became the hallmark of the GFA organised tournament.
At the presentation ceremony of the inaugural tournament, Banks DIH executives said they were pleased to be associated with the tournament.
They were high in praise for the GFA who they said organized the tournament at a very short notice.
One executive said Banks DIH Limited was asked to play a role in the sponsorship of the tournament “and we were proud to step up to the plate” adding, “we were paying off a debt to the society we serve.”
Last year’s tournament was won by Sunburst Camptown and they received a first prize of $4M, up $1M from the previous year. The second place team (Riddim Squad) collected $2.5M, $1M more that the previous year.
This year’s prize monies are still to be announced.

(By Michael DaSilva)