By Marlon Munroe
The Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) hopes that its new concept of Twenty20 football will resound around Guyana and hopefully around the world the same way T20 cricket has enjoyed the groundswell of support from its followers and corporate sponsors.
The UDFA launched its 20/20 Regional Football Championships for Region 10 yesterday at the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in Campbellville yesterday. With the aim of resuscitating of the sport in the mining community of Linden, the interim committee also hopes to conduct a countrywide 20/20 football tournament.
The championship, which will kick off on April 17 at the Mac Kenzie Sports Club ground, was given the blessing of the GFF. The concept of 20/20 football is to have teams play for 20-minute halves with five minutes of rest in between and should there not be a winner after regulation time a penalty shoot out will ensue.
Yesterday at the briefing Interim Chairman of the UDFA Joseph Haynes said that it will be an exciting venture and he hopes that the concept will catch on. The first leg of the tournament in Linden will see the winners taking home $300,000 while second and third place winners will be carrying home $200,000 and $100,000 respectively.
He also revealed that the UDFA intends to run off this tournament in a year, GFF and its mandate permitting, to get the Guyana 20/20 football tournament off the ground. He said that in the countrywide tournament the winner will get $1 million, a trophy and the players will be the recipients of genuine gold medals; second and third place finishers will receive $500,000 and $250,000 respectively along with genuine silver and bronze medals.
Haynes said that the Guyana cup will see the three best teams from the 10 Administrative Regions being arranged in groups and vying for the main prize.
“This tournament will be repeated yearly as the first tournament and will extend into our Caribbean region then into the rest of the world. I foresee in the near future, a 20/20 World Cup football tournament with Guyana being amongst the countries to be a participant and or a host country”, Haynes noted in a brochure.
Haynes pointed out that the tournament will be played under the rules set out by FIFA. On the other hand, each team is expected to submit 18 players to the orgnisers but at any time only 15 players will be allowed on the field when the game is being played.
Substitution of players must be done by the 15th minute of both halves and no substitution will be allowed for other infringements except injury to a player.
Meanwhile, at the opening ceremony there will be top artistes from Linden inclusive of singers of the 20/20 football jingle. Stabroek Sport also understands that it would be a spectacle worthy of emulation and the exhibition match between GDF and Western Tigers will be the right start to a successful tournament.