ICWI and associate sponsors will combine with the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) to stage the ICWI/KSAFA 2015 Under-13 and Under-15 football competitions starting on Saturday.
The under-13 competition will kick off on Saturday, with the Under-15 starting on Sunday. The respective finals will be played on Saturday, September 5 and Sunday 6.
KSAFA President Ambassador Stewart Stephenson made the announcement at a press launch at the ICWI board room yesterday.
Championing the cause for football at this age to aid constructive development, Stephenson pointed out that “these competitions form part of the KSAFA age group development programme with the Under-20 competition running from January to March; the Under-17 from April to July; and now our Under-13 and Under-15 competitions from mid-July to early September”.
“The Under-13 and Under-15 competitions are compulsory for all 34 community-based clubs including our seven Premier League clubs,” Stephenson emphasised.
Stephenson indicated that the clubs mentioned are based mainly in the inner-city communities throughout the Corporate Area, and argued that “competitions are designed to provide healthy recreational activity for our young players during the summer months while they are on holidays”.
Returning to the structure of last season, the Under-13s will play each Saturday and the Under-15s on Sundays. The clubs in each competition will be assigned to four geographical zones in an attempt to minimise the cost for travel. A total of four matches are carded on Saturdays with kick-off set for noon, while the Under-15s will play double-headers in each zone of the home venue.
The Under-13 competition will be played on a smaller field with a size four ball. The duration of the match will be 60 minutes. The Under-15 will, however, play on a regular-sized field over 80 minutes with a size five ball.
The first sets of matches will be played at the Seaview Gardens playing field. The Sunday games will be played at Vauxhall and at Bull Bay.
A budget of $1,065,000 has been realised with $500,000 from ICWI, while Corporate Jamaica will come up with $400,000 towards referees’ fees.
This is a marginal increase of $65,000 over last season and each competition is $532,500.
Each budget will, therefore, make provision for five basic areas: Prize monies $90,000; Referees’ fees $250,000; administrative costs $100,000; trophies and awards $22,500, and match balls for clubs $70,000. For each competition the 34 participating clubs will each receive a Nike match ball, size four for the Under-13 and size five for the Under-15.
Teams are divided into four groups, by geography.
Allman/Woodford, August Town, Real Mona, Barbican, Shortwood, Cavalier, New Kingston, Santos and Swallowfield will contest Zone A. Zone B will consist of Browns Town, Bull Bay, Harbour View, Central Kingston, Rae Town, Rockfort and Tivoli Gardens.
The Under-13 Competition in Zone C are Arnett Gardens, Boys’ Town, Greenwich Town, Maxfield, Molynes United, Olympic Gardens, Seaview Gardens and Whitfield Town while Zone D will comprise Constant Spring, Cooreville, Duhaney Park, Maverley/Hughenden, Meadforest, Pembroke Hall, Red Hill, Stony Hill and Waterhouse.
The Under-13 competition kicks off on Saturday with four games in Zone C at Seaview Gardens playfield starting at noon. In the opening game, Whitfield take on Arnett, then Olympic Gardens face Boys’ Town, Greenwich Town will play Molynes in the third match and Maxfield go up against Seaview in the feature game at 4 p.m.
In Zone B action in the Under-15s on Sunday, Central Kingston play Tivoli at 2:30 p.m. and Browns Town take on Rockfort at 4:30 p.m. at Vauxhall High School. While at Bull Bay, Harbour View entertain New Kingston and Bull Bay take on Rockfort.
Sources: The Jamaica Observer & The Jamaica Gleaner