Kickoff of ExxonMobil U14 tourney shifted to May 25

School football enthusiasts will have to wait another week to witness the commencement of action in the ExxonMobil Boys and Girls Under-14 Schools’ Football tournament, as announced by coordinators Petra Organization during a ball- distribution exercise on Tuesday.

Petra Co-Director Troy Mendonca has revealed that the tournament will kick-off next Saturday, May 25th, instead of the initial commencement date of Saturday, May 18th. According to Mendonca, this is owing to an overwhelming interest of schools wishing to compete in the tournament.
“Ms. Latiff would’ve alluded to the response by teachers and students to this team briefing, and that in itself is an indication as to the response from schools as it relates to the tournament. And so, having taken that into consideration, we’re forced right now to shift back the tournament one week,” Mendonca shared about the postponement.
The tournament was set to feature 32 Boys’ Teams and 24 Girls’ teams playing in a round-robin Group stage first, before moving on to the Round of 16. However, Guyana Times Sport has been able to confirm that 40+ schools have shown interest in the Boys’ tournament; creating good headaches for the organizers.

Despite the change to the kickoff date, the Petra Organization continued with their customary ball- distribution exercise, which was carried out on Tuesday at the National Racquet Center on Woolford Avenue in Georgetown. There, Ministry of Education (MoE) Allied Arts Representative Towanna McCalmon was on hand to not only encourage discipline and fair play among the students, but to speak to the positive impact of the tournaments.
McCalmon addressed the students by saying, “At the Unit of Allied Arts, we support every sport discipline which is being done in our schools, which helps our learners to become well-rounded and disciplined individuals. Football is no exception, and with this tournament, we continue to see rapid growth in talent amongst our boys and girls.”