The 2019 edition of the Milo Schools football tournament will kick off tomorrow with a scintillating line-up of opening games.
The tournament, which has been around for the past seven years, is sponsored by distributors Beepats under the Nestle Milo brand and caters to secondary school teams in Georgetown and other areas. This year, a 24-team roster includes teams from East Coast Demerara, East Bank, Linden, West Coast Demerara and Berbice.
Furthermore, the teams have been divided into six groups of four where they will compete against their group mates in the round-robin segment before they move on to the knockout stages.
This year’s competition will see only one private institution participating, as the 
coordinator, the Petra Organisation tries to uphold its philosophy.
“There are some popular institutions that over the years would participate in the tournament and what we as the organisers want to achieve is a wider cross-section of schools being ready and motivated to participate and what some of these institutions are doing is not in keeping with our philosophy,” Petra Co-Director Troy Mendonca disclosed at the launching of the 2019 tournament two weeks ago.
As such, this year will see the guaranteed crowning of a new champion, given the fact that the 2018 winners Sir Leon’s Lessons will no longer be in contention.
The action will kick off at 12:00h on Saturday, February 9 at the Ministry of Education Ground, with three games scheduled for that day. The Milo Under-18 football action will continue on Sunday with three more games.
The teams will be vying for a grand prize of $500,000 while second place will receive $300,000. A prize of $200,000 and $100,000 will be awarded to third and fourth place respectively. All prizes will be awarded in kind in the form of a project of the school’s choice.
Fixtures:
Saturday, February 9
12:00h President’s College v Marian Academy
13:45h Bishops’ High School v North Ruimveldt Secondary
15:30h Queen’s College v St Stanislaus College
Sunday, February 10
12:00h Annandale Secondary v St Joseph High
13:45h South Ruimveldt Secondary v Canje Secondary
15:30h Lodge Secondary School v St Mary’s Secondary
