Tourney officially launched in Linden; 32-teams to battle from tomorrow

Apr 02, 2011 Sports

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By Franklin Wilson

It took the Capital City by storm for the first two years it was introduced and even saw high level officials from Guinness World Wide coming to Guyana to share in the excitement and electric like atmosphere that was created.
But for now, ‘The Guinness Greatest of the Street’ football train will dock in the Bauxite Mining Town of Linden for the first time in the third year of its existence.
Attending yesterday’s official launching of the competition for the first time in Linden at the LEAP building in the Bauxite Mining Town were Banks DIH led by Sales and Marketing Executive – Carlton Joao, Brand Manager Guinness – Lee Baptiste, Linden Branch Manager – Shondell Easton; Communications Manager – Troy Peters along with Organisers Sharma Solomon and Keiron Sealey.
The champion team will be powered by a top prize of $400,000; $250,000 is set aside for the loser of the final with $150,000 and $75,000 going to the third and fourth placed teams respectively.
Teams will also benefit from Guinness Hampers along with apparel that has been sponsored by co-sponsor of the tournament according to Joao, Velle Sport.
In his feature remarks, Joao said that it is exciting times for Banks DIH and Guinness while noting that the event is one of national proportions and has been deliberately planned to be community based.
“It has become a national event, we are moving around the towns and it’s entirely a community based project. We hope that everyone is ready to become greater than great and to become the greatest.”
“As we have seen in the capital city, we would like to see the communities to come out and rally behind their teams as they play.”
Joao informed the gathering that the winners of the various zones around Guyana will ultimately come together for a national competition later this year, that tournament will be known as the ‘Guinness Ultimate in Greatness’ championship where the national winner would be crowned.
There are also plans according to the top Banks DIH Executive to go Pan Caribbean, “So most likely whoever wins in Guyana will go off somewhere to represent us as the greatest in street football here and to become the greatest in the street in the Caribbean.”
It was disclosed that there will be an age limit for players to participate since the competition brand is Guinness. Players must be 18-years and older in order to compete.
Joao, while stating that they are expecting to see some exciting and fun filled matches, was stern in driving home to the representatives of the 32 clubs present that discipline is the key word for the tournament.
“We’re talking about the discipline of the players, we expect the discipline of the patrons attending to be of the same high caliber and we expect a really high quality of football given that the games will be extremely competitive and fast.”
Sharma Solomon, a Vice President of the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) noted that they organisers sought to have the Wards in Linden and Region 10 well represented and they are looking to have the best talent on display while aiming for a high level of competitiveness.
He informed that the response to play has been very overwhelming and encouraging and they took time to ensure that the final will be a Linden vs Mackenzie affair.
Tomorrow’s opening game; exhibition in nature, brings together a select Linden combination against the Guinness Greatest of the Street champions from the City, Broad Street Charlestown, the Wisroc Park in the heart of Linden is the venue.
Competition games set for tomorrow will see Top Class taking on Police, while Mini Bus match skills with $100 Car.
The other teams challenging for the attractive prizes are Cherokee Park, Bad Boys, Victory Valley Warriors, Porker Burg, Silver Bullets, Street Vibes, Star Boys, Hi-Stars, Hard Knocks, Trainline Warriors, Eagles, Attackers, Team 25, Ripping Bullets, Retrieve Unkown, Sheriff Squad, Peace Makers, Fire Storm, Watooka/Blueberry Hill Coomacka, Amelia’s Ward Russians, South Stars, Spikeland United, Rough & Rugged, Scheme, Goal Getters, Half Mile/One Mile and Wisroc.
Teams can register a maximum of 7-players each while only 4 can be on the playing pitch at any given time, a minimum of 3. Games will be 30 minutes with two equal halves of 15 minutes each.
Following tomorrow’s opening, game days are slated for the Silver City Hard Court (April 8); New Silver City Hard Court (April 9); Christianburg Hard Court (April 10); Georgetown Park (April 15); Watooka Hard Court (April 16); Amelia’s Ward Hard Court (April 17) and Silver City Hard Court (April 20) which will see the end of the preliminary round which will be contested on a round-robin format which would be followed by the knock-out stage.

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