By Calvin Roberts
The 5th Annual St Lucia Kashif and Shanghai football competition is set to kick off on Sunday in the island with teams from neighbouring St. Thomas, St. Maarten and St. Vincent slated to join 11 other club teams from the host island of St. Lucia to compete for the top prize of US$11,500.00.
According to co-promoter Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major who is one half of the promotions group (Kashif Mohammed is the other half) preparations are underway for the hosting of this tournament.
“At the moment, Kashif is in St Lucia fine tuning preparations for this tournament. It is our aim to organize this tournament in the same manner we do it back home with flair and precision whilst maintaining a professional standard, Major said.”
The tournament will have a second prize of US$4,000.00 whilst the third and fourthplaced finishers will pocket US$2,000.00 and US$1,000.00 respectively.
Guyana’s Kashif and Shanghai champions Alpha ’The Hammer’ United were slated to participate in this tournament but will not be doing so as according to Major, high airfare being the major problem.
“We had looked at the possibility of having Guyana’s K&S champions Alpha United participate in this tournament, but high airfare costs as well as the unavailability of bookings for an appropriate date made it impossible for us to do so” Major stated.
He further stated that those who are desirous of going across to the island of St. Lucia to witness any of the games can do so as there will be a two -days package on sale for US$420.00 inclusive of accommodation. Persons desirous of taking up this offer can contact Major on telephone number 621-7925 for further information.
Meanwhile, Major stated that plans are moving a stream for the running off of the 19th annual Kashif and Shangai competition here in Guyana.
“We have been in communication with our regular sponsors as well as some foreign ones in connection with our 19th Annual Kashif and Shangai tournament. We had to resort to seek overseas sponsorship as the cost of organizing the competition has increased and we are looking to take the tournament to a higher level,” said Major.
He continued “We are looking at two foreign teams that are on par with our level of football to compete in this edition. We don’t want to bring a team whose standard of football is higher than ours. We have been negotiating with a team from Trinidad and one from the USA.”
Major further told Stabroek Sports that once negotiations with their regular sponsors here are completed, the launching of the competition will commence soon.
“We want to launch it as soon as possible but we want to complete our negotiations with the regular sponsors who have been behind us all these years. We are also looking to have a discussion with President Bharat Jagdeo as quickly as possible also. But once all this have been completed and we hope to do so very soon, we will launch the competition.”
