Sandals aboard western youth football leagues
ROSE HALL, St James — Sandals Resorts International continued its return to football sponsorship yesterday when they announced a $1.4 million sponsorship of the St James and Hanover Under-17 and Under-20 football competitions set to kick off at Jarrett Park tomorrow.
Twenty-eight teams will take part in both competitions that are set to end on September 3rd and will see four games being played on Saturday to get the leagues off and running.
Saturday’s festivities will get under way at 11:00am with the first Under 17 game, Seba Academy vs. Cornwall Courts and Mt Pelier vs. Sandy Bay.
The Under 20 games will start at 3:00pm with Eastern Bamboos vs. East Central Rangers while Wadadah and Juniors will face off in the 5:00pm game.
Sandals was a fixture in football in St James and Hanover for nearly two decades until they pulled out but according to Group Public Relations manager Mitchell Watson who spoke at Thursday launch at the sandals Royal Caribbean, the company was re-organising its return.
Sandals earlier this year sponsored the St Ann business house league.
Bruce Gaynor an executive member of the St James FA and a vice-president of the Jamaica Football Federation said the sandals sponsorship came at a time when the sports national governing body was moving to concentrate on youth football.
In a wide ranging address guest speaker Lloyd B Smith, publisher of the Western Mirror urged the business sector to get more involved in the game and to make football a priority.
He said there were statistics showing that when football was on a high in the region, crime declined.
Smith who this week announced a return to representational politics urged the club administrators not to allow politicians and those seeking office to use them to get votes.
He warned the played to be wary of those who would come around starting up corner leagues in an effort to get the youth votes.
The format of the leagues will see each team playing each other once in the preliminary rounds and with the exception of the Hanover Under 20 that has only four teams, the top four in the other three leagues will advance to the semi-final with the winners playing in the final.
