Junior Cup continues to target grassroots football

FOR THE third year running, the Youth Football League’s Junior Cup will bring out some of the best that the nation has to offer at the grassroots level of the game.

The competition is set to start this Saturday, January 13, and continue throughout four weekends of all-day football action.

With a continual expansion since their first staging in 2022, the Junior Cup will be open to teams at both the under-12 and the under-13 divisions. The tournament consists of three regional competitions in Kingston, Manchester and Ocho Rios, before a final all-island competition to close off the tournament.

Paula Pinnock, the event’s managing director, explained that the competition aims to provide an opportunity for players at this level to enjoy themselves and help in their personal football development.

“At the end of the day, if we want to do better in football and we want Jamaica to raise its profile as a football country, then we have to get more games being played at this level. We want to be as inclusive as possible so we created this tournament for more kids, especially at the school level, to come and participate.”

The Junior Cup will kick off this Saturday with the Kingston Regionals set to be played at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Bowl.

The Manchester Regionals will be the next stop for the event on January 20. However, the organisers are still in the hunt for a venue after a scheduling conflict at the Kirkvine Sports Club left it unavailable to host the tournament.

After which, the Junior Cup will then head towards Drax Hall for the St Ann Regionals on January 27 before making a return to the UWI Mona Bowl on February 3 for the all-island finals.

Pinnock explained that at the regional stage, a maximum of 20 teams will compete in a day-long competition where the top four teams will then advance to the all-island finals.

The Junior Cup boasts a $250,000 cash prize for the overall winner at the all-island finals.

“There are 30-minute matches for these full day tournaments. So to preserve the quality of play, we have a cap of 20 teams. We’ll have the top four teams from each region participating in the all-island finals where we’ll have an ultimate winner. We do offer a cash prize as we realise that a lot of these teams spend out of their own pockets and we want to recognise their efforts and reward them with the prize of $250,000.”

The under-12 division is open to players born 2012 or after while the under-13 division is open to players born 2011 or after.

Each team must pay a registration fee of $15,000 to enter the competition. For entry at the gate, the cost will be $600 for adults and $400 for children.

Last year the Junior Cup added an under-nine competition to its offerings.