The fifth staging of the KSAFA/Guardian Life Under-10 Football Championships will take place today and tomorrow at The University of the West Indies/Jamaica Football Federation (UWI/JFF) Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence with defending champions Exodus Football Academy expressing confidence that they will be able to retain the title they won in April.

The tournament was launched at Guardian Life’s head office on Trafalgar Road on Tuesday, where it was revealed that there will be 22 teams participating. Eighteen teams participated in April, where Exodus won for the first time when they got the better of Harbour View in the final.

The new teams that will be participating are Maverley/Hughenden, Real Mona and St Hugh’s, who will field two teams at the tournament.

Glendon Gordon, vice-president of sales and life at Guardian, is pleased with the growth of the tournament since its inception.

“On the field, everybody is equal and ultimately plays toward one goal of winning. The impact of football on youth development and rallying a sense of national pride and patriotism is so profound that it is therefore not surprising that this Under-10 competition has been growing at such a fast pace.”

General secretary of Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), Dwayne Dillon, who spoke on behalf of President Wayne Shaw, highlighted the role played by academies in addition to the affiliated clubs in the development of football within this particular age group. “KSAFA continues to recognise the need to put major emphasis on youth football, which we are making all efforts to have Corporate Jamaica see the need to support as we have garnered with the support of the Guardian Group.

“The need for organised competition at the Under-10 level has been supported by academies and our clubs.”

Exodus Academy Head Coach Christopher Burnett exuded confidence ahead of the start today.

“You can expect the Exodus team to do very well, coming off of winning the tournament in Minnesota. We trained last week and the boys are very excited to participate in this tournament this weekend. We retained all the boys that participated in the last tournament in April, so we will be at full strength.

“We have the ammunition, we haven’t lost any players and the boys are on a high and the training sessions have been intense, so we are really looking forward to this weekend and retaining this trophy.”

The surface will also suit his boys after their exploits in the summer.

“When we were overseas we played on artificial turf so the boys are accustomed to playing on that type of surface at the Captain Burrell centre.”

The previous winners of the competition before Exodus who won in April are Holy Family Primary and Liguanea United FC.

— Dwayne Richards