Another new season, new ideas, new sponsors, new players, new chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Jamaica (PFAJ), — all together are expected to bring renewed excitement and anticipation to the Red Stripe Premier League for the 2015/16 season which begins today.

Champions Arnett Gardens will start the defence of their title tomorrow when they welcome new boys University of the West Indies (UWI) to top-flight football at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.

But prior to that, there are five games on today with former champions Harbour View hosting Boys’ Town at the Compound; Portmore United travel to Montego Bay United; newly named FC Reno tackling Humble Lion; Waterhouse play Rivoli United; and Cavalier take on Tivoli Gardens.

With the champions not in action today, the storied clash between Harbour View and Boys’ Town at the Harbour View Mini-Stadium will take the spotlight.

Last year Harbour View thrashed Boys’ Town 4-1 in their first meeting, but the Red Brigades would bounce back to win the remaining two games 1-0 to get the better of the three meetings.

With the acquisitions of World Cup veteran Ian ‘Pepe’ Goodison and Kaemmar ‘Dada’ Daley to their ranks, Harbour View should start favourites to kick-start their season on a winning note. The game will also see Harbour View’s new recruit Hugh Evans facing his former club.

Dethroned champions Montego Bay United will once again be the standard bearer from western Jamaica, and will face a tricky encounter against former champions Portmore United, who are making a return to the top flight after one season out.

It should be an intriguing encounter and will give the Portmore faithful an idea of where their team is at the moment in their road back into the big league.

Tivoli Gardens, under new coach, Christopher Bender, welcome Cavalier to the Edward Seaga Stadium for what should be a keen contest.

A lot of interest will be focused on Tivoli Gardens’ prodigal son, Jermaine ‘Teddy’ Johnson, one of 13 recruits to the team, including the dangerous David Stultz from Greenwich Town, Cavalier’s Javanie Mitchell, and Narado Brown from Humble Lion.

Cavalier, who finished just four points behind Tivoli Gardens in the table, will be no pushovers. When one considers the interesting acquisitions in Akeem Shackleford, who helped Jamaica College sweep schoolboy football titles, and former National Under-20 defender Shawn Lawes from Barbican, they will be dangerous.

Meanwhile, Calvert Fitzgerald will be making a speedy return to his old club Rivoli United when he brings Waterhouse to the Spanish Town Prison Oval, seeking to get his season off to a winning start.

Fitzgerald has raided his former club snatching four Rivoli players in Kemar Beckford, Shannon Bartley, Jermaine Henry and Keith Wright.

In addition, Waterhouse brought back Sean Coleman from Humble Lion alongside new recruits Damion Binns from Portmore United and goalkeeper Deron Duncan from Tivoli Gardens.

It will be interesting to see how Rivoli cope under returning Coach Harold Thomas and new signees Luke Soares (Sporting Central), Liston James (Cavalier), Codean Smikle (Reno) and Junior McGregor (Tivoli Gardens).

Having changed their name from Reno FC to FC Reno, the Westmoreland club will host Humble Lion at Frome hoping for a good start.

But the home team will find it extremely difficult against last season’s semi-finalists who have strengthened significantly with the acquisitions of several players from their relegated neighbours Sporting Central Academy.

The likes of Linval Lewis, Allien Whittaker, Kaydian Wynter, and Michael Mooreland all made the switch to an already strong unit, making Humble Lion a more formidable force, and Reno will have a hard time, even playing at home.

— Howard Walker