Competitive opportunities for local youth at VMFA Exchange Cup 2026

Beginning Sunday, March 29, the Vurlon Mills Football Academy (VMFA) will open its doors to three international Youth clubs, alongside several other local clubs for their first Exchange Cup 2026.

The competition will run until Wednesday, April 1 at Camp Ayanganna Ground with some 60 games on the cards as the youngsters compete in the Under 12, U14 and U16 categories.
Speaking exclusively with the Director of the VMFA, former Golden Jaguar Vurlon Mills, he dubbed the upcoming competition as an exciting opportunity for the country’s youth footballers.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us and it’s an exciting opportunity for the kids and we’re proud to have this opportunity for the boys, the local teams to compete in this kind of activity,” Mills told the Guyana Times Sport.
He went on to share about their intentions for the tournament, “At VMFA, we’ve always enjoyed the opportunity of our young teams travelling and competing abroad and we believe that this opportunity can be extended to more local teams. And so, we decided to have our own international competition right here in Guyana. Given the short planning and short time, we had for it, we weren’t able to get all the international teams that we’re hoping to get but we’re still happy that we got three countries.”
VMFA’s youth teams alongside the likes of Fruta Conquerors, Buxton Stars, Pele FC, Camptown and Plaisance FC amongst others, will be joined in the competition by Peppermint Youth Programme out of St. Lucia, Antigua’s Young Warriors and Trinidad and Tobago’s Point Fortuin’s Youth Academy.
Excited to host, Mills is even more elated to provide such an opportunity to local clubs.
He explained, “For us, this competition is more than just a tournament, this is an exchange of culture, this is an exchange of different playing styles, an opportunity to see youth football development across the Caribbean. So, we’re happy that, even though we’ve been able to do it outside of Guyana, now we’re the hosts of it. We’re happy to be home, competing, we’ve seen what it looks like, travelling and playing.”
“We realise that we can compete at any youth level across the Caribbean and we want to give those local clubs the same opportunity to test themselves against these opponents that are coming from the other countries in the Caribbean,” the Coach added.
The player turned Coach went on to opine that next week’s competition will fill a big gap for youth players locally.
Mills posited, “I think this competition fills a big, big gap when it comes to youth football due to the lack of local youth competition. Our kids aren’t getting playing time, if we look across we’ve got to keep organizing practice games so, these events and tournaments create opportunity for playing time and not just playing time but competition at the highest level.”
“For us, this is not just a one- off competition, this is not just about VMFA. For us, this is part of a long- term programme and a plan where we can keep creating these opportunities, not just for us but for the local clubs to have a platform to play and be exposed,” he further stated.
MVP Sports, NexGen Sports and SHI Oil are amongst the corporate supporters for the Exchange Cup 2026.