The Pouderoyen Tarmac on the West Coast of Demerara is the place to be tonight as the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ football tournament kicks off its 2019 year. The Guinness action promises the best of the best street football teams gathering to battle for cash prizes and a spot in the national Guinness tournament which will be hosted later in the year.
The West Coast Demerara/East Bank Sub Division will be the first to get their action underway tonight with 16 teams, four of which are new to the tournament. The Georgetown Sub Division is usually the one to kick off first, but it has now been moved to the last sub meet.
This is not the only change that the competition will see. Guinness brand manager
A glimpse of last year’s action
Lee Baptiste, at the launching of the event, disclosed that efforts are being made to give the tournament more publicity. An example of this, he explained, is the use of a Television programme which will feature interaction and interviews with players, alongside tournament updates and results.
“For this year, one of the areas that we really want to focus on is bringing to light the communities, the players within those communities, and the positive vibes that they’re bringing through football. The hope is that we can bring to the public’s viewing the players and those who’re performing at a high level,” Baptiste stated.
As such, the brand manager expressed hopes that the added publicity would increase the players’ performance.
“The players will now be forced to operate at that standard within those communities. So, hopefully, that will show fruit and will assist in even carrying the game further,” he said.
The highly anticipated action will begin tonight with eight games lined up. Three- time champions Showstoppers will be returning to defend their title, their first encounter will be against ‘Up Like 7’. Meanwhile last year’s runners up, ESPN, will open their campaign against Dream Team. Third place finishers West Side Ballers will start the tournament with a battle against Rising Star.
Game days will be on January 25, February 1, 6, 8, and the finals will be staged on February 15.
The winner of the West Coast/East Bank subdivision will be walking away with $500,000, while the second place finisher will receive half of that total. Third and fourth place finishers will be awarded $200,000 and $100,000 respectively.
Tonight’s Games:
Uptop Boss vs Boom Bang Ballers
Ballers United vs Genna
Phoenix Ballers vs Jetty Ballers
Bagotstown Warriors vs Young Ballers
Agricola vs Ballers Empire
ESPN vs Dream Team
Rising Star vs West Side Ballers
Showstoppers vs Up Like Seven
