By Avenash Ramzan
Sixteen teams will begin battle on August 12 when the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), in partnership with the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and Ansa McAl Trading stages a round-robin knockout tournament.
Dubbed the Stag Beer Revival Cup, the official launch of the competition took place on Tuesday afternoon in Georgetown where representatives of the sponsor and participating teams were on hand. The teams have been equally placed in four groups.
Group A comprises Guyana Defence Force, Georgetown Football Club, Pele and Northern Rangers, while Group B has Western Tigers, Riddim Squad, Beacon and Black Pearl.
Group C is made up of Fruta Conquerors, Police FC, Camptown and Eastville, while Group D will see rivalry among Buxton, Santos, Flamingo and Order and Discipline.
Chairman of the Competitions Committee of the GFA, Otis James, said, “It has been the long time since the cry at the GFA is football. So I’m so pleased to have something like this happening at the GFA.”
James divulged that 56 games would be played over 16 days, with the top two teams from each group after the round-robin phase moving forward to the knockout stage.
The competition is the first undertaking of the recently installed IMC of the GFA, headed by Trevor Williams.
“It’s part of our mandate to see football played again in an organised, and of course sustainable manner in Georgetown, so competitions are going to be high on our agenda,” Williams said.
He added, “We wish to thank the GFF also for playing an integral role, and of course Stag Beer for coming onboard with this Revival Cup. The work of the IMC is cut out and at this time I wish to say that we’re very happy to have started this process and have football being played while we continue to work to sort out and stabilise the issues in the GFA.”
President of the Guyana Football Federation, Wayne Forde, welcomed the return of competitive on-field action in the city.
“We can all agree that football in Georgetown has long been overdue. It is pointless for us to get into the reasons why we are at this stage, but what I think we should do is concentrate our energies in developing a sustainable programme over the next couple of months, over the next couple of years,” Forde asserted.
He continued, “We have seen many of our most talented and gifted players being deprived of doing what they enjoy doing most, which is playing football.”
Forde commended Ansa McAl Trading for embracing the tournament, even with the level of dormancy that existed in the city.
“It takes a leap of faith for a sponsor to come into an environment that has been dormant for this long. Many may question whether there is any commercial value existing any longer in the GFA football set-up. I dare say yes, there is. But it would require the collective effort of all of the stakeholders, more so the clubs, the players and the officials. We have to deliver a product that is worthy of the investment Ansa McAl has committed and the investment the Guyana Football Federation will make,” Forde shared.
Marketing Representative, Seweon McGarrell, said Ansa McAl Trading is overly excited to be the title sponsor of the tournament, which has a top prize of $500,000.
