By Yonalla Dalrymple
The organizing committee of the annual Inter Market Futsal Tournament which was scheduled for the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) has decided to cancel the tournament owing to the unavailability of the venue.
According to the coordinator of the tournament, O’Neil Durant, the Futsal tournament initially scheduled for July was rescheduled to commence on November 6.
Durant told Stabroek Sport that he decided to cancel the tournament after the venue was under repairs for some two months and was later booked to accommodate another festivity.
He also said that the committee tried to get bookings for other appropriate venues with one being the Banks DIH Limited ground at Thirst Park.
He said that this search proved futile.
According to Durant, they were told by Banks DIH representatives that it was too late to make bookings since the ground was already booked with upcoming events for the remaining of the year but promised to remain in contact with him. He stated that he met with representatives from Banks DIH, yesterday when it was confirmed that they would not be able to not use the ground.
“They said that they have two tournaments for the end of the year and it will be difficult for us to book the ground. They also stated that Saturdays will definitely be out, so that will make no sense since Saturdays are our game days,” Durant added.
He noted that had they gotten the Thirst Park ground the participating Market teams would have played against each other in a seven-a-side match instead of the Futsal tournament. Durant said he will be meeting with the members of the public, the respective Market teams, supporters, sponsors and the press on the status of the tournament by tomorrow (Thursday).
This would have been the third year for the Inter Market tournament. The organizers had planned to stage a Regional Inter Market tournament in 2014 but it is unclear whether the organizers would still go ahead with that initiative following this setback.
This year’s tournament had attracted some 20 teams as opposed to the last tournament where only 14 teams participated.
“This year’s tournament was deemed as bigger and better but unfortunately it was called off but everything has its reasons and hopefully next year we will receive the same response from the different market teams,” Durant stated.
The winning team of the last tournament was Stabroek Market, led by former national striker Anthony Stanton which defeated Mahdia in a penalty shot out.
