The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) launched the Blue Waters U-15 Secondary School League yesterday at the National Training Centre. Providence, East Bank Demerara. The event, which commences on May 4th, will feature 60 schools across the nine administrative regions competing in a 9v9 format. Region #8 will not feature in this edition.
The regional winners and several other respective finishers will advance to the national round of 16 segments, which will be contested in a round-robin format, unlike the traditional elimination round.
The tournament will also not feature the usage of the ‘red card’, which leads to automatic expulsion.
Instead, it will utilise the ‘sin bin’ mechanism that is employed in ice hockey, which will force the player who is guilty of a major infraction to remain on the sidelines of the game for three minutes, in the process reducing the number of players on that team.
GFF Technical Director Bryan Joseph said, “Our aim is to create an opportunity for people to come together and enjoy the beautiful game, thereby promoting female football development in the short to medium term. We believe that mass participation should be the foundation of our developmental pyramid, as we strive to make more games accessible to everyone, especially young girls.
Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Sales at Blue Water, Richard De Nobrega, said, “I see future football stars sitting among us. I see a huge amount of potential here, and it is our duty as a member of the private sector, as a company, and a partner of the GFF to ensure that the potential that is sitting right here ends up on the world stage, representing Guyana.”
GFF President Wayne Forde said, “I know we have 116, I believe, secondary schools. I was just reminded by my good colleague that only 60 will be involved in this year’s competition. But I can tell you, over the next 4 years, we intend to increase the number of participating schools by 10 to 15 each time the tournament rolls out.”
