The Guyana Football Federation (GFF), in partnership with the National Milling Company (NAMILCO), officially launched the 2023 edition of the Thunderbolt Flour Power Under-17 League on Wednesday at the latter’s Agricola headquarters.
This was confirmed by an official press release from the federation. The event, which will be played on a round-robin basis, will be contested amongst the academy training centers starting October 7th at the National Training Center in Providence.
Group A comprises Georgetown, East Coast Demerara, East Bank Demerara, Berbice, and the National U15 team, while Group B contains Upper Demerara, Essequibo/Pomeroon, Bartica, and West Demerara. The release did not mention the reasons for the absence of Rupununi. Following the end of the group stage, the winner of each pool will progress to the final on November 18th.
NAMILCO Marketing Supervisor Alicia Anderson said, “We have come on board again to support football for the Under-17 tournament, which spreads across the length and breadth of Guyana. We want people to render support to the grassroots players, which is important for growth and development. We would have seen this ripple effect happening in other sports across Guyana as well.”
He further said, “When you support grassroots football, that bit of motivation—the support that the players get playing in front of a crowd and to hear the shouts [of] running and passing the ball, or goal—gives them that extra boost that they need to work on their performance and build their motivation to perform even better. Namilco has always been a part of that through our Thunderbolt brand, and we will continue to support football.”
Meanwhile, GFF Technical Director Bryan Joseph posited, “The GFF is very grateful to Namilco for partnering again for another year of under-17 football.” When the President Wayne Forde administration took office, Namilco was one of the first partners to come on board with a multi-year agreement. We’ve seen how this partnership has contributed to the development of our players. The standout person for us would be Omari Glasgow, who was a beneficiary of this competition, playing as early as 14 years old, and now he is the star of our senior men’s national team. And that opportunity was afforded through this partnership with Namilco.”
He further noted, “Our national under-17 boys are going to be involved in international competition in 2024, and this is an opportunity for them to stake a claim to be part of that 23-man squad that is going to represent Guyana at that competition. We want to ensure that we deliver a really good tournament so that all of the objectives of both the GFF and Namilco are met at the conclusion.”
