ExxonMobil/Petra launch 5th edition of U14 Boys and Girls tournament

Beginning next Saturday, May 18th, more than 50 secondary school boys and girls Football teams would converge on the Ministry of Education (MoE) Ground at Carifesta Avenue for kick-off of the ExxonMobil Under-14 Schools’ Football Tournament.
This comes on the heels of the launch of the fifth edition of the tournament on Thursday afternoon at Cara Lodge in Georgetown, where it was revealed that ExxonMobil have plunged some $17.7M into the expansion of this year’s tournament.

Speaking at this launch was ExxonMobil’s Community Relations Manager Suzanne DeAbreu, who cited inclusivity and several benefits to players as reasons for the company’s continued support.
DeAbreu shared, “For us at ExxonMobil, investing in sport is investing in the community. For the past 5 years, supporting Petra in this initiative has allowed us to make a positive contribution in one of our community investment focus areas: women, youth and community empowerment. When I think back to my days at school and the part team sports played in my life (and) that of my peers; and more recently, when I see the impact sport (has) had on my own children; I’m really pleased that we’re supporting this initiative, which brings so many benefits to young people.
“I’m also really please at the inclusivity of boys and girls, and that we’re seeing more teams taking part from around the country,” DeAbreu articulated.

This year’s tournaments will see 32 boys’ teams and 24 girls’ teams competing over the course of 7 weeks. As such, Co-Director of the organizing body, Petra, Troy Mendonca, gave a breakdown of the tournament’s format.
“Both boys and girls will have a round-robin knockout. For the boys, eight groups of four, then we go to a round-of-16 and then quarterfinals. Of course, the eight teams that remain in the quarterfinals will play for place 1-8, so nobody will be going after then. Of course it’s developmental,” Mendonca explained.
“And similar for the girls. It’s gonna be six groups of four, and then we break down to 16 and then 8. And of course, just like the boys, the girls will play for 1-8,” the Petra Co-Director went on to divulge.
“I know our organization will put our best foot forward to make this tournament a successful one. So that, come next year, we can be here or probably somewhere else to launch the sixth edition, and we can see many of these kids being incorporated within the national setup,” Mendonca further committed.
Teams from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 are set to compete in this tournament for first to fourth place prizes that would materialise as a school project. The ExxonMobil U14 competition is tentatively set to conclude on June 29th.