ALLIANCE Finance and McKay Security have partnered with the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) to sponsor the 2015 Under-20 tournament.

Thirty-two teams will this year take part in the competition, which opens next Wednesday, and has a format change of four zones comprising eight teams each leading to the semi-finals and final.

KSAFA president Ambassador AB Stewart Stephenson made the disclosure at a press launch the Pollyanna Restaurant, in Kingston, yesterday.

Alliance Finances will contribute $1,000,000, with and McKay Security putting up $600,000, in addition to $200,000 from associate sponsor Locker Room Sports in match balls, for a total budget of $1.8 million that has been allocated for the competition.

Appalled at the dismal showing of the nation’s Under-20 team in the recently concluded CONCACAF Championship which served as a World Cup qualifying tournament, Stephenson said: “I believe that it is significant that KSAFA is today launching our Under-20 competition right on the heels of a disappointing performance by a national team in the CONCACAF tournament.

“I have listened to many experts, local coaches and family in the local media who expressed the views that the national team appeared, in some instances, under-prepared. Also uncoached, without a clear philosophy of a playing system and that all the best players available were in the squad and that at a time the players appeared jaded or fatigued.

“Whatever your perspectives are for the reason for the disappointing performance of the national team, this competition will give an opportunity for our coaches in our clubs to display the abundant talent that exists in the Corporate Area so that we can showcase them for the national team.”

Continuing his discourse on developing the nation’s talent for the FIFA 2018 World Cup Finals in Moscow, Stephenson added: “Our mandate at KSAFA, as a confederation, is to nurture talent through our clubs, expose them to our competitions so that our national selectors can have an array of choices in presenting the best that Jamaica could have at the international level.”