Ksafa/guardian serve up early Christmas treat for young footballers
AS the Yuletide season approaches, the Kingston & St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), along with Guardian Life Limited, will provide a football treat for over 100 boys attached to 31 clubs, institutions and academies at the third staging of the Guardian LIFE/KSAFA Under-10 Football Competition.
The competition will be held at the Football Factory in Norbrook next Saturday and Sunday.
The event was first staged in April this year in which 16 teams participated, but it has seen phenomenal growth during the year, as the number of participating teams has almost doubled. Twenty-five teams participated in the summer staging and although it is a KSAFA initiative, the competition is not restricted to KSAFA teams only.
Eric Hosin, CEO of Guardian Life, main sponsors of the event, said: “We are pleased to be associated with this competition yet again. We see tremendous value in developing our youth and have them playing at such an early age. We will definitely be back on board next year and we are happy to see other sponsors proving support.”
Genesis Academy out of Manchester are one of the 11 new teams participating this time around along with Allman Woodford FC, Bright Beginnings Educational Centre, Emmanuel Christian Academy, Exodus Academy, Meadforest FC, New Kingston FC, Olympic Gardens FC, Pembroke Hall FC and Techmax Sports.
Genesis Academy founder and Manchester High school head coach Andrew Edwards was delighted to be invited to the third staging.
“Genesis would like to commend the Guardian Life Group and KSAFA for their foresight and vision in investing in the future of Jamaica’s football with this Under-10 tournament. We are extremely delighted and pleased that KSAFA saw it fit to recognise the work that we have been doing down here in Manchester since 2016 and have given us an invitation to participate in this tournament.
“We are excited about it and we look forward to matching skills against the Kingston & St Andrew and St Catherine teams that we hope to be drawn against and hopefully we can get very deep into the competition and possibly win it. It’s part of the growth strategy for Genesis, we want to expose the kids in Manchester to football all across the country and in the future, internationally as well.”
President of KSAFA Wayne Shaw said that this particular tournament plays a key role in the mandate of his body.
“The Under-10 competition will continue to support our bottom-up approach to the development of football as Council recognised the gap in our calendar structure. Harnessing the talent from an early stage will contribute to the long-term positive effect on the pool of players we seek to produce.
“KSAFA sees the need to emphasise the necessity for different levels of development to display a holistic approach to our process of producing talent at all age group levels. We saw the need to make changes to our youth calendar and this addition to our Age Group Development programme continues to be well received.”
Shaw hastened to thank the new and returning sponsors as KSAFA looks to continue to grow the tournament to reach more players.
“I would like to specially thank Guardian Life for renewing their sponsorship for this competition, as it is vital for corporate Jamaica to see the vast potential in our youth.
“I would also like to thank associate sponsors Tastee and Football Factory, and our media sponsors TVJ and KLAS/ESPN Sports Radio for their continued support and promotion of our competitions. I would like to welcome new associate sponsor Valeo Academy. We appreciate the growth in support of this important league.”
Liguanea United won the last tournament held in the summer.