“THE decentralisation of the Milo U-18 football has had a positive effect for future editions of the schools tournament,” so said the organising body’s co-Director Troy Mendonca when he addressed the media, during a briefing ahead of the tournament’s 2018 final.
“The idea of opening up this tournament to be more or less a countrywide tournament has borne fruit. I think that everyone involved, all the stakeholders, would be happy to witness the final, come Saturday,” he said.

In this Saturday’s final Buxton Youth Development will take on Sir Leon Lessons at the Ministry of Education ground. Defending champions and favourites Chase Academic Foundation, Morgan’s Learning Centre and Christianburg Wismar were all booted out of the tournament.

Mendonca said, “Over the two months, we saw a lot of football being played and after we would have completed the round-robin stage, from then, no one, I think could have safely said who would be the eventual winners and that spoke volumes for the tournament.”
“We’ve worked very hard over the last couple of months to (get to) where we are, notwithstanding some difficulties and challenges that we would have faced during the time. But I want to compliment the staff of the Petra organisation,” he continued.
The sponsors, he noted, like Beepats through their Nestle Milo brand and the Ministry of Health through their Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, have continued to support this development.

Both captains were elated to be in the final and thanked the organisation for sticking to its guns and hosting the tournament.