…Skills Competition to be contested

BEVERAGE manufacturing giant Banks DIH, through its Guinness brand, and Petra Organization, yesterday for the sixth successive year, joined forces to launch the Georgetown leg of the ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ Futsal Football competition.The simple ceremony was hosted in the sponsor’s Sports Club, wherein Banks DIH’s Guinness Brand Manager, Lee Baptiste, said an individual ‘Skills Competition’, which is in keeping with the Caribbean ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ tournament, will be held.
“It is that time of the year, when Banks DIH under the Guinness brand, take football to the streets and to an extent the communities… We are here to launch the Georgetown leg of the competition for the sixth year in collaboration with Petra Organization.
“Looking ahead to the future, we will be calling this time of the year the ‘Street Football Season’, as from now to next June, there will be street football competitions being played in various communities across Guyana, blossoming into a Caribbean Street tournament under the Guinness brand,” said Baptiste.
According to Baptiste, cash prizes totaling G$1M will be distributed to the various winners, a statement that was highlighted by Petra Organization’s, Troy Mendonca, who was present with Troy Peters, Mortimer Stewart, Wayne ‘Harry’ Griffith and Brian Choo at yesterday’s launching.
“Banks DIH, through its Guinness brand, is very proud to be the pioneer of this tournament, with the main objective being the development and unity within the communities throughout which matches will be played once again,” Baptiste related.
In his brief remarks, which served as a tournament briefing, Mendonca said 32 teams which will be divided into eight groups of four, will do battle in the preliminary round of the competition where they play each other on a round robin basis, following which the two top teams per group will advance to the round of 16.
“This year, in keeping with the action from the Caribbean ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ Futsal Football competition, we will be playing the quarterfinals and semifinals on the same night, which is 17th December, at the National Cultural Centre tarmac, with the finals being hosted at the National Park four days later.”
Mendonca said the top team for this year’s competition will pocket $500,000, with the second, third and fourth placed teams taking home $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively along with trophies, while all the teams in the preliminary round will pocket $25,000, $20,000, $15,000 and $10,000 each, according to their placing.
“This means that no team will go home empty handed from this tournament which kicks off next Tuesday at the Banks DIH’s Demerara Car Park, since a team who top their group, can pocket $25,000 while the team that place fourth in their group, will receive $10,000,” said Mendonca.
Venues such as Burnham Court, California Square, Albouystown, Banks DIH’s Demerara Park, National Cultural Center and the National Park, will be used for this year’s tournament which will see Leopold Street defending the title they took from Back Circle last year.
Like the previous two years of the tournament, the winner will go on to represent Guyana in next year’s Caribbean ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ Futsal Football competition that is scheduled to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in June.

(By Calvin Roberts )