SINCE 2004 when Glenmuir High School shared the Olivier Shield Title with Excelsior High School, no DaCosta Cup champion has taken lien of the coveted Olivier Shield, symbol of all-island supremacy in schoolboy football.

While some may be quick to argue that this is a consequence of the superiority of the Manning Cup champions down the years, there are credible arguments to the contrary.

At the start of every season the structure of the competition places the eventual winner of the Manning Cup in a highly advantageous position. Since 2005 the winner of the Manning cup would enjoy a full 10-day rest prior to the playing of the first leg of the Olivier Shield compared to three days (realistically only one day when you account for the celebrations that naturally go on in the schools) for the DaCosta Cup winners. Previously they enjoyed 14 and seven days, respectively.

The argument has been that scheduling did not allow for the previous format to be sustained given the proliferation of schools contesting the DaCosta Cup. Typically the number of schools competing in the DaCosta Cup is almost twice the number competing in the Manning Cup.

With the competition mandatorily scheduled to run in the first term of school, the existing structure promotes an inherent bias. Enterprising and creative logic dictates that a new structure that engenders fairness be explored and implemented. I have personally made numerous proposals that have never been fully discussed at the various ISSA levels.

Ideally, the structures of the competitions need to see two major changes. Firstly, the DaCosta Cup zoning must be increased to either 14 or 16 zones. This will ensure that schools need not play more than two games per week (as now exist in the Manning Cup), excepting where rescheduling is unavoidable. Bear in mind that this is something that received unanimous support from coaches in the Manning Cup. Additionally, such a system reduces the times the students are necessarily occasioned out of classes.

Secondly, the Manning Cup should have one more round, similar to the inter-zone round of the DaCosta Cup. In 2012, Manning Cup teams played a game, on average every 10 days in the second round, compared to three for the DaCosta Cup. This will create a more balanced situation in terms of work load for both eventual champions.

Take, for example, the 2012 workloads of St George’s College and Rusea’s High School, the Manning and DaCosta Cup champions, respectively. Playing the full number of possible games for the season, St Georges College played a total of 20 games. Ruseas, on the other hand, played all but one of the total number of matches possible, a total of 25 games.

In addition to these changes, continuation and expansion of a policy to play matches in some zones of the DaCosta Cup on the opening day of the season will allow the ISSA to have an extra playing day in the schedule, which will allow for the Olivier Shield finals to be returned to the old format of playing on the two Saturdays following the playing of the DaCosta Cup final.

Alternately, the ISSA may wish to contemplate playing the first leg of the Olivier Shield on the Saturday following the DaCosta Cup final and the second leg on the following Wednesday.

In all of this a most important stakeholder are our sponsors who we all expect to be sensitive and keen to the issues of fairplay and competing on a level playfield.

These changes are not expected to cause winners of the DaCosta Cup to go on to win the Olivier Shield. They will, however, without doubt create parity. Not too much to ask I believe.

Editor note: Andrew Edwards is a schoolboy and assistant national Under-20 men’s coach.