FOOTBALLERS over the age of thirty-five, nationwide, will match their skills in the smaller version of the ‘Beautiful Game’ when the first ever Masters Full 100 FUTSAL Classic is staged next month at the National Gymnasium.At a launch held last Friday in the Boardroom of the National Sports Commission (NSC) it was announced that the Tournament will be played over the first three weekends in December and will cater for three categories of Masters: Junior Masters (35 to 39 years), Masters (40 to 49 years) and Grand Masters (50 years and over).
Trophies for the top four finishers in each category as well as Individual Trophies for all the categories have been donated by the NSC who has also made the venue available at reduced costs. Also giving support to the inaugural competition is Germans Restaurant. Last Friday, representative of the popular Restaurant, Chontelle Sewett, handed over six match balls to be used in the Tournament.
Sixteen teams are expected to participate in both the Junior Masters and Masters Divisions, and eight in the Grand Masters. A total of 80 competition matches will be played among the forty registered teams as well as 20 exhibition games over the nine playing days, making the Classic a full 100 matches.
The Guyana FUTSAL Association will coordinate the Tournament where it is the intention to climax the December 2nd to 16th tournament with the establishment of an Interim Management Committee to charter the way forward for Masters Football in Guyana.
Registration of teams will end on November 26th and the registration fee of ten players per team is five thousand dollars.
The Masters Football fraternity, at the launch, thanked the Director of Sport, Christopher Jones for his immediate response and whole hearted support of the idea of a Tournament for past footballers.
Gratitude was also extended to Clinton Urling and Germans Restaurant for immediately coming on board.
Representing the NSC was Assistant Director, Brian Smith who lauded the initiative to run a Tournament of this nature while stating that the NSC was happy to be a partner of Masters Football.
Second Vice- President of the national FUTSAL FA, Mark Young in his remarks endorsed the Tournament and assured that his organization will be involved in the execution of the competition.