THE long-awaited and highly anticipated KSAFA/Valeo Youth Football Development League will get going this Saturday at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence starting at 8:00 am.

The 10-week development league will cater to three age groups — Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 — for the first staging, with the expectation of adding other age groups next year.

A brainchild of Emilio Williams, the president of Valeo Academy, the competition was due to start in 2020 but got derailed by COVID-19. Things are now back on track and fifteen teams, including KSAFA clubs and academies along with Los Perfectos from Manchester, will be participating over the next ten weeks.

Williams, who is very big on youth development, could not contain his excitement about the league finally getting underway.

“We are excited to get back out to play. We are hoping that this will jump-start Jamaica’s qualification hopes. Our goal is to return to the World Cup in 2028.”

Williams will be providing gear and equipment for every player who participates in the competition.

“This development doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it has to be holistic. The kids will have full match gear and for the coaches, pennies, balls, cones — things to conduct a session — and coaching education will be a part of it.

“Each fully participating club will receive 50 sets of gears including socks, shorts, jerseys, shin guards and ball bags.”

He also explained that there is a long-term plan for the development league.

“It’s a multi-year plan. This is just the start. We are starting with three age groups right now but our goal is to add Under-10 come the fall, and Under-19 next spring.

“The goal is to play 6 to 9 months of club football; you play a match every weekend and train 2-3 times per week.”

President of KSAFA, Wayne Shaw was happy that football was returning at the youth level in his confederation.

“Over two years we have not played any football in KSAFA. We return with the KSAFA/Valeo Youth Development League.

“There are not only KSAFA teams, there are academies, and we have Los Perfectos from Mandeville who will be participating,” he explained.

Shaw said the purpose of the KSAFA/Valeo league was primarily developmental and as such he had asked the coaches of the various teams to give all the players an opportunity to participate.

“It’s a development league. It’s not about winning, it’s about getting the players to participate. We don’t play enough football in Jamaica, we just have competitions for maybe 8-12 weeks so this development league, we are starting with 10 weeks initially but the plan is that for next year it will run for 6 months, getting the players to play more football.

“I advised the coaches that it’s not about winning. You don’t play the star players every match; you need to play everybody — including those on the bench — because that’s the only way you are going to develop everybody.”

The games will begin with the Under-13s early in the morning, before the Under-15s start mid-morning and the Under-17s in mid-afternoon.

— Dwayne Richards