Fifteen other female teams will challenge defending champions Marian Academy starting this Saturday at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Ground when the MVP Sports Pee-Wee Girls’ Under-11 football tournament returns for another instalment.
In its second year being hosted under the MVP Sports Brand, the tournament will feature teams from Regions One, Three, Four, Seven and Ten. The little ladies will compete in a round-robin group stage, before heading into the knockout rounds.
During the launch at its Giftland Mall location on Monday morning, MVP Sports owner Ian Ramdeo, in committing to continuing to support the tournament, spoke of how they spotted an opportunity to assist in developing the female aspect of the sport.
MVP Sports’ Ian Ramdeo
“We’re more than excited to actually move our focus a little bit more into the female realm, which, as they’ve mentioned, is sometimes a little bit more difficult to get sponsorship, supporters etc, but we do feel it’s an area that needs development and as we’ve seen from over the years when the first Pee Wee tournament, the girls played a part of the boys’ teams initially. So, we’ve progressed from there to having girls play their own tournament,” Ramdeo related during the tournament’s launch.
The MVP Sports owner further stated, “MVP Sports is very happy to support these efforts for the sport and for the youth and we look forward to continuing to be part of this tournament and the other initiatives that the Petra Organisation normally has on an annual basis.”
Petra Co-Director Troy Mendonca added to the conversation on the importance of hosting a girls’ version of the Pee-Wee tournament.
Petra Co-Director Troy Mendonca
Mendonca shared with the small gathering, “As you know, female football is now a big thing in the world and the different institutions such as FIFA have been putting a lot into the sport and thank God, we at Petra, over the past eight years, saw the vision and understand the importance to have these young girls start their love for this sport. This involvement by Mr Ramdeo and his company can only bear fruit for the female sport.”
“Again, we think that this initiative is going to serve the sport well, and so, on behalf of myself, Co- Director Dr Cole and the entire football fraternity, we would like to say Thank you very much.”
Defending champions Marian Academy, 2023 runners-up St John the Baptist Primary, One Mile Primary, Batavia Primary, Potaro Primary, Friendship Primary, Genesis Academy, Georgetown International Academy, School of the Nations, Smith’s Memorial Primary, Tucville Primary, West Ruimveldt Primary, North Georgetown Primary, and FE Pollard Primary are among the schools competing in this year’s tournament.
The teams are vying for a $100,000 grand prize, with second to fourth place receiving $75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 respectively, all for a school project of their choice.
