Three games are scheduled in today’s delayed start of the Lynk Cup KO competition which has been welcomed by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) as a timely move in the right direction.

The competition, which will be the first national knockout cup to be played in more than a decade since the Federation Cup was last contested, was originally set to start last week but was pushed back.

Jamaica Premier League (JPL) teams Molynes United and Humble Lion FC will host JFF Tier II teams Hopewell United and Wadada United FC, respectively, while Tru-Juice FC and Falmouth United will meet in an all Tier II game, all set to start at 3:00 pm.

Five more first-round games will be played on Thursday, according to the schedule published on Tuesday.

Twenty-four clubs, drawn from the JPL and the Tier II, will take part in the competition.

Gregory Daley, chairman of the JFF Competitions Committee, said the addition of the Lynk Cup was “very significant for more reasons than one”.

“We need to play more football coming out of the COVID-19 lockdown, we need to play more football at the higher level and this will give the players more playing time,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“Also, we had to start back somewhere and so the Lynk Cup is very welcomed and it also gives the Tier II clubs some competitive playing time as well which they can use to gauge themselves and see where they are as their season is about to start,” Daley added.

The St James football boss said, “it is a good look right now and we hope that it pays off well for the clubs in every area.”

Eight clubs — Harbour View, Chapleton Maroons, Arnett Gardens, Waterhouse FC, Cavalier FC, Faulkland FC, Mt Pleasant, and Dunbeholden FC — were given first-round byes.

Additional motivation for clubs is the top prize of $1 million, but there will be other attractive prize money as runners-up will get $750,000 and third place $500,000.

There will be other cash prizes starting with the quarter-finalists.