Jamaica’s best street footballers are expected to heed the call to battle when the Guinness Street Football Challenge kicks off in February.

Teams from across the country will vie for the chance to become national champions and represent the country at the regional finals to be held here in Jamaica in June.

Communities are being encouraged to register eight-member teams at venues to be announced soon. Teams will play on a knockout basis until a parish champion is crowned. From there the respective parish champions will face each other on the weekend of June 13 to determine which will emerge national champions.

Jamaica’s champion team will pit its skills against the Caribbean’s best teams in the regional finals set to take place on the weekend of June 20 at a venue to be announced.

In last year’s tournament held in Trinidad, teams battled for a winner’s prize of US$4,000 cash and bragging rights.

“This is the premier street football tournament of the Caribbean and in true Guinness style our consumers who are made of more strive to be more than spectators, they live to play the game. They play for the pride of their community, the pride of their country, the pride of the Caribbean,” said Andrew Anguin, acting brand manager at Guinness.

The Guinness Street Football Challenge is in its fourth year but will be played in Jamaica for the very first time. Jamaica’s champion team will face about nine other opponents from other Caribbean nations including Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Antigua/Barbuda, St Kitts, Dominica and newcomers Haiti.

During the regional finals teams will be drawn into two ’round-robin’ groups (A & B). The two top teams from each round-robin group will go through to the next stage. The winning team from Group A will play the second-placed team in Group B, and vice versa. The two losing sides will compete for the third place, while the winning two teams will compete to win the tournament overall.

Jamaica was represented in the regional finals last year by winners of the LIME Street Challenge Competition. In 2014 LIME had bought the sponsorship rights to host the tournament, but for 2015 Guinness will retain the rights and are aiming to make the upcoming tournament the biggest yet.

The competition will also feature a skills challenge: Guinness fans, who believe they are made of more, will get several opportunities to demonstrate their ball-juggling skills before captive audiences. Jugglers will face off in one-on-one street battles lasting three minutes and will be judged on ball and body control, degree of difficulty and creativity, style and showmanship. The crowd will decide who wins to advance to the respective parish finals. A national champion will then be determined and he or she will then face off against the best in the Caribbean.

Teams in last year’s Guinness Street Football competition line up in a presentation ceremony.