Nation-wide Blue Water Girls’ U15 tournament set for May 4 kick-off

Next Saturday, May 4, will mark the commencement of three months of female and youth football action as the Guyana Football Federation (GFF)-Blue Water Girls’ Under-15 National Secondary School Championship kicks off.
The tournament will reportedly reach some 60 secondary schools across the country, with the exception of Region Eight.

“Our aim is to create an opportunity for people to come together and enjoy the beautiful game, thereby promoting female football development in the short to medium term. We believe that mass participation should be the foundation of our developmental pyramid, as we strive to make more games accessible to everyone, especially young girls,” GFF Technical Director Bryan Jospeh shared in front of prospective players and teachers, gathered at the GFF National Training Centre (NTC), Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD) for the launch on Wednesday afternoon.
According to Joseph, the upcoming tournament will take on a 9v9 format with the female players competing on a half-pitch every Saturday.
Blue Water Shipping, in keeping with its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into with the GFF, will be the title sponsor of the developmental tournament. As such, Senior Vice President of Sales at Blue Water, Richard De Nobrega spoke of why the company continues to support such initiatives.
“I see future football stars sitting among us. I see a huge amount of potential here and it is our duty as a member of the Private Sector, as a company, a partner of the GFF to ensure that the potential that is sitting right here ends up on the world stage, representing Guyana,” DeNobrega expressed.
The Blue Water official went on to share, “We at Blue Water, we’re extremely excited to be here and to be part of this very, very long-awaited and anticipated launch of the Girls’ Under-15 League. We at Blue Water hold sport extremely dear to us. We’re 51, almost 52 years old as an entity globally, and sport has been one of our long-standing values.”
After competition in nine regions across Guyana, each regional winner alongside four other teams will make it to the Round of 16. Contrary to the customary practice, the Round of 16 will be played in a round-robin format, after which losing teams will continue playing for positions, while winners advance.
GFF President Wayne Forde, while discussing the tournament’s current reach, promised its further expansion in years to come.
“I know we have 116, I believe, secondary schools. I was just reminded by my good colleague and only 60 will be involved in this year’s competition. But I can tell you, over the next four years, we intend to increase the number of participating schools by 10 to 15, each time the tournament rolls out,” Forde explained.
An uncommon feature that will also be employed for the Blue Water U-15 tournament is the ‘Sin-Bin’, which eliminates the use of red cards in a game, rather forcing a player to sit out of the game for three minutes after an offence. The team will play for the three minutes without the player.