Youth Football League expands for second season
Published:Thursday | September 14, 2023 | 12:09 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
IN A bid to continue helping to shape Jamaica’s football growth through the development of youngsters playing the game, the 2023 Youth Football League’s Junior Cup competition goes into its sophomore staging this month.
The age-group tournament which brings out the best local primary and preparatory school footballers, under the guidance of the Free Your Image (FYI) Consultancy Group, will make its grand return on September 30.
Paula Pinnock, marketing director at FYI Consultancy Group, while speaking at yesterday’s launch of the competition at Funland Jamaica inside Hope Gardens, said this year’s staging is incorporating schools from Manchester along with last year’s participants from Kingston and Montego Bay.
But as with all new ventures there is a glitch. According to Pinnock, she’s trying to identify an appropriate field for the start of the tournament.
FACING CHALLENGES
“Last year we did Kingston and Montego Bay, and this year we will be expanding as we’ll be in Manchester, and I’m very happy about that. We’ll kick off action on September 30, but unfortunately, we still face challenges with appropriate fields, and because of the age of the participants, we have to ensure that we have quality fields that protect their little feet and knees,” said Pinnock.
The tournament will see a jump from 48 to 56 participating schools, with Pinnock saying she believes the continuation of tournaments like this paramount to Jamaica’s success as a country in the sport of football.
“If we want to keep up, we have to create more opportunities for our kids to participate in football tournaments. We will be having four tournaments annually, that is the under-9, under-11, under-12 and under-13, so that we capture as wide an age range as possible. We’re forcing the schools to look at the kids that are eight and nine to say that they should be playing competitive football at that age group if we want Jamaica to get back to the 1998 level of competitiveness,” said Pinnock.
Gregory Jones, head coach of Emmanuel Christian Academy (ECA), defending urban and all-island champions, also believes Jamaica needs more of these types of football tournaments.
“I think we need more of these types of tournaments. I think over the years, grassroots football has been on the back burner in Jamaica and we’re now seeing more of what should have been done 20 and 30 years ago,” he said.
According to Jones, his ECA outfit should again be competitive, having retained the bulk of the much-talked-about team from last year.
“My boys are optimistic as we have a pretty good team this year. We lost only one player from last season so we’re expecting to do well again as we have a good programme in place,” said Jones.
The 2023 Youth Football League is sponsored by Funland Jamaica, WATA, Tru-Shake, Powerade, Sports Development Foundation, The Gleaner Company (Media) Ltd, and Locker Room Sports.