Due to the overwhelming success of the recent GT Beer Knockout tourney, Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) President Collis Gifth said the entity has every intention of making the tourney a staple during the yearend period. Speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sports, Gifth said:”It is our every intention to continue to host the event during that period because it’s peak time for football and more importantly, it brings a lot of benefits to the community. In other words the association will benefit a lot.”
He added:”Very shortly we will be sending our annual programme to the federation and of course that will be a part of the programme. Right now our main focus is to execute some of the programmes we have planed.
“It’s a lot of work but we want to make it happen. Our primary focus right now is on the league which we hope to get started in February,” he disclosed.
Asked if the possibility exists that the tournament could be expanded beyond the shores of the association, Gifth said: “Though we wouldn’t rule it out, the 16 teams we have within the association are very capable of putting on a good show in any given tournament.
“Even though we are not ruling out the possibility of expanding in terms of having other associations involved, we have the capacity to promote our own tournament without any other association and still be a success,” he declared.
Gifth said the association is not ruling out teaming up with other associations in the forseeable future.
“Our main focus is to get our teams as active as possible and then we can look at the possibility of including other associations. It’s not off the table, we will definitely like to partner with other associations to run tournaments in the future but we have enough teams to run a good tournament.”
Asked if the association would ever consider shifting its finale from New Year’s Day, the UDFA Chief said “January 1st is significant to Linden, so we will explore possible options to ensure our finale remains on that date.
“Regardless of which other associations are hosting finales on the same day, we will try to ensure that our final remains on that date. Linden is the Mecca of football on January 1st and that is significant to the people in Linden.
“People look forward to that and it brings a fascinating atmosphere to the people of Linden and we don’t want to take that away from them,” he added.
“If the federation wants to host a national programme around the same time that means we will have different considerations. In all fairness we should try to maintain that date. Based on the success of the tournament, people are calling for a third year of the event.”
