THE Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) senior football competitions will return, after a two-year break due to the novel cornavirus pandemic, with the playing of the rebranded KSAFA Championship League (KSAFACL), formerly known as Super League, and the Major League.

The KSAFACL will begin on Sunday with the playing of one match between Barbican FC and Browns Town FC at 4:00 pm at the UWI-Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, while the Major League will kick off on Wednesday July 13 with a match between Pembroke Hall and Police National at the Stadium East Field, starting at 7:30 pm.

“Our senior competition will kick off on Sunday. The competition has been rebranded as the KSAFA Championship League (KSAFACL). The tier 2 competition will remain as Major League,” declared Mark Bennett, the second vice-president of KSAFA.

He also gave further details about this year’s competition which will see one round of matches before the play-offs instead of the usual two or three rounds.

“The championship will have nine teams competing and the Major League will have ten teams. We have a fall-off in the usual number of twelve teams in the senior competition, and in the Major League we are accustomed to between 12 and 19 teams.

“The fall-off was a result of COVID. A lot of teams were slow in getting their administrative process in place in time for the competition and as a result they lost their eligibility to compete in the senior competition,” he stated.

The teams that miss out on this year’s football competitions will have to start from scratch in 2023.

“They will now have to go back through re-certification — in terms of applying for affiliation and playing three youth competitions — before being allowed to play in the senior competition,” Bennett explained.

He is expectant of a return to the usual numbers with the start of the 2023 football season.

“But we expect to see, if not all, most of them turning up in short order. This competition will be played in a shortened version — unlike in the past where we had three rounds of games, now we have one round of games.”

Bennett said that it was important for his association to restart football after a very long break.

“We felt it was important to restart our league at this time, notwithstanding the format. The clubs are okay with it.”

Similar to the top flight Jamaica Premier League which came to an end last weekend, there won’t be any teams going up or going down in this shortened format.

“Another thing that is missing from this version this season is the usual promotion and demotion. The clubs and us at KSAFA have agreed that the most important thing is to get the football going, and we will return to the normal process of having two or three rounds in the new season and promotion and demotion again.”

KSAFA President Wayne Shaw was happy that football was returning to the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew.

“I am pleased that we’ll be starting senior football in Kingston and St Andrew again. It’s going to be a truncated league.

“The winner of each match will receive $40,000 for each victory. Every team that participates in the competition will receive prize money. The winning team in the Championship League will receive $1 million while the winner of the Major League will receive $800,000.”

The finals for both competitions are tentatively set for September 7th. Campari will sponsor the play-off matches and this will include them providing a brand new trophy for each competition.

The KSAFA Under-13 and Under-15 competitions will return next month while the Guardian Life-sponsored Under-10 competition will be played in December.

— Dwayne Richards