By Treiston Joseph
The 2017/2018 season of the Guinness Greatest of the Streets small goal futsal tournament will kick off on Wednesday (November 22) with action in the Georgetown leg. Thirty-two (32) teams in the city will test their skills against each other in the hope of advancing to the national playoff next year.
At the launch on Monday Banks DIH Limited, Brand Manager of Guinness, Lee Baptiste, shared his enthusiasm for the upcoming season, noting that this season might just be the “best” one yet based on what transpired at the qualifiers last weekend.
Baptiste also shared that the Guinness brand has set aside extra money to help the community of the champion team with a community-based project once one can be identified.
Co-director of Three Peat Promotions, Rawle Welch, highlighted that one of the changes will be the colour code of the teams, including the colour of the balls in an effort to spice things up a bit.
Referee Coordinator for the tournament, Wayne Griffith, also shared an interesting rule change that will keep teams on their toes, especially in the final minutes of any match.
“In the final three minutes of the second half any team that score, that goal will be a Guinness goal and will count as double, so if a team is leading 1-0 throughout the game and the losing team scores in the final three then they will go onto win once time expires,” Griffith explained.
He added, “Any player that hits the ball out of the arena will have to spend three minutes on the bench as well and the rest of the rules remain the same.”
The tournament will kick off this Wednesday at California Square with 10 games. The champion team is guaranteed $500,000, while second will cart of $250,000; third $200,000 and fourth $100,000. Kick off time is 19:00h.
