By Treiston Joseph
Beepats Trading and the Petra Organisation will be joining forces yet again to host the fifth edition of the Milo Under-18 School Football Tournament, starting this Saturday. The announcement of the tournament was made on Tuesday at a press conference held at Beepats’ Sophia Office. Director of the Petra Organisation, Troy Mendonca, was quick to point out the growing popularity of the tournament.
“The football fraternity is thankful for your (Beepats) support of the tournament and the Milo Football tournament I think has become a household name; the youngsters now are just calling it Milo, asking when is the Milo and if we are having it this year and that speaks to the enthusiasm and we must once again thank you, “ Mendonca stated.
Brand Manager for Milo, Renita Sital, was keen to share that Milo hopes to take the sport to the next level. “This is the perfect alignment for Milo and we joined with Petra and hope to make football in Guyana big and take it to the next level, so I want to say to the persons listening and those not listening come out and support the games even if they are not your kids,” Sital stated.
Representative from Ministry of Education, Department of Allied Arts, Nicholas Fraser, was adamant that Petra in the future should aim to decentralise sport while looking at a possible tournament for the youth level (12-15) in secondary schools.
Meanwhile, President of the Guyana Football Federation, Wayne Forde, pinpointed that the federation is going in the direction of youth development and tournaments such as the Milo School football aids in the federation’s plans of such development.
In addition, Forde made it known to the management of Beepats that supporting football in general is heart warming for him especially when the sport has not shown its best face locally and internationally in recent times.
The tournament will kick-off on Saturday at 10:00h with four matches as 32 teams are scheduled to compete for top honours. Chase Academy will be hunting a third consecutive title.
