7th KFC Goodwill International tournament set for December

Eight secondary school football teams from around the Caribbean and South America will converge on two venues in Georgetown this December, as KFC Guyana and the Petra Organisation collaborate for the seventh annual KFC Goodwill International football tournament.
Slated for December 13 to 20, 2026, this year’s edition will see a team from Barbados making their anticipated debut while the Trinidad and Tobago Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Champions, Naparima College, and Jamaica’s Olivier Shield Champions Excelsior High, are already confirmed for competition.

Speaking during the tournament’s launch on Wednesday night at Cara Lodge, Petra Organisation Co-Director Troy Mendonca reiterated the objective behind the tournament.
Mendonca shared, “This tournament is far from just playing on the football field. It brings together several countries from the Caribbean and Brazil and gives our young people the opportunity to encounter different cultures and build friendships. On the field, players will have the freedom to express their talent, discipline, creativity, and teamwork while proudly representing their country through their schools.”
“At the outset, I want to say a special thank you to KFC Guyana, our main sponsor, who continue to show confidence and investment to make this important programme possible. I also want to acknowledge the invaluable support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport and Amerindian Affairs. Their support confirms a shared commitment to youth development, education, and sport,” the Petra Cor Director went on to express.
KFC Guyana’s CEO Paul Subryan shared remarks, highlighting why the entity continues to support the competition.
“That is why KFC is so proud to support this tournament,” Subryan told the gathering, “Because we’re all about community development, we’re all about youth development through sport.”
“As a business, we believe that businesses should contribute to the communities that support them, and for KFC, that means investing in young people and helping create opportunities for them to learn, to compete and to develop their talents.”
Meanwhile, Head of Allied Arts Nicholas Fraser spoke to the unique opportunity that the tournament presents to players.
“These competitions that we have here, locally, are very much anticipated by the schools and by the regional education departments. Also, it forms an important part of what we do in terms of the development of sport through schools. So, we’re very thankful and happy to partner with both you and the title sponsor,” Fraser noted.
The Allied Arts Head added, “We’re also happy to note that the tournament will not only be able to help our footballers improve in the tactical areas and the technical areas of football. In that, it is always good to play opposition players who are not from your area. Since a lot of the time when we play, we learn to play a certain style, and it is until we face opponents with a different style that we’re able to learn and change, adapt and improve. We at the Ministry understand the need to have run where teams from different areas and backgrounds are able to play each other.”
Further, the manager of the defending champions, Oronde Chase, gave an interesting welcome to his fellow competitors.
Chase remarked, “As defending champions, we’d like to compete, but before competing, we’d like to welcome all teams and hopefully be good hosts. So, we’re awaiting Suriname, Brazil, Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica for us to have a memorable December.”
Barbados, Suriname and Brazil are yet to confirm their representatives, while the Republic Bank Secondary Schools League winners or runners-up and a representative from Region 9 will complete this year’s KFC International roster.
The eight teams will be sorted into two groups of four for round robin play, after which the top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-final.
Defending Champions, Chase’s Academic Foundation will be looking to pull off the three-peat this year.