CATHERINE HALL, St James – A million dollar bounty awaits the winner of Saturday’s inaugural Montego Bay United high school football preseason tournament to be held at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, starting at 10:00am.

Six high school football teams from western Jamaica including five from Zone A of the ISSA daCosta Cup competition are expected to take part in the event that the organisers say will end by 10:00pm and will include a pre-season game between Jamaica Premier League teams, Montego Bay United and Portmore United.

Cornwall College, Herbert Morrison Technical, Frome Technical, St James High, Maldon High and Irwin High will participate and, according to Leecroft Lettman, director of the MBU Academy who is arranging the event, the teams will be placed in their respective zones before the start of the tournament by publicly drawing pre-marked tokens from a hat.

The teams will play two 40-minute games, 20 minutes each half, “all FIFA rules being used”, with the top two from each zone qualifying for the semi-finals.

All the games will have winners, with penalties being used to break ties, Lettman said.

“This event is to get the teams ready, get them into competition mode as well as to boost their coffers with the purse of a million dollars,” he said, adding “this money will go a long way to helping any team, for nutrition, gear, even accommodation and transportation.”

He said with the expected addition of more sponsors next year, it is hoped that prize money will be handed out to more than just the champions.