Youth Ensemble National phase kicks off this weekend

The Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Youth Ensemble programme has reached the National phase, with 18 teams from the nine Regional Member Associations set to compete for top honours, in both the Under-13 and Under-15 competitions.
The winners and runners-up from each association have punched their tickets to the national phase, with the West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) and Bartica’s U15 representatives still to be determined.
In the meantime, Paradise Football Club (FC) of the Berbice Football Association (BFA), Plaisance United of the East Demerara Football Association (EDFA), VMFA of the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), Kuru Kururu Warriors of the East Bank Football Association (EBFA), Potaro Strikers of the Bartica Football Association, Rupununi Jaguars of the Rupununi Football Association (RFA), YMCA of the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA), and Dartmouth of the Essequibo-Pomeroon Football Association (EPFA), were the champions of the U13 regional programmes.
Paradise FC, Buxton Stars (EDFA), VMFA, Kuru Kururu Warriors, Challengers (RFA), Dainty Academy (UDFA), and Dartmouth took top honours in the U15 divisions.
In an update on the tournament’s progression on Thursday, GFF Technical Director Bryan Joseph highlighted the reach of the tournament.
“Of significance is the fact that for both the U13s and the U15s, we had over 1000 young men and women that participated, and I say women because the regulations of the tournament allowed U15 girls to be part of the teams at the U13 level. So, I know in Bartica, as well as in Georgetown and even Berbice, we had girls that formed part of the teams that participated,” Joseph divulged.
The 18 teams in each division will be sorted into four groups with two groups of five, and two groups of four. The teams will be engaged in round robin play, after which the four group winners will advance to semi-finals.
According to Joseph, those games will be contested at venues across the country.
The Technical Director explained, “These matches are in a similar format to the regional phase; these matches will be played across the country. For both age categories, we would have matches in Georgetown, at the NTC [National Training Centre], Plaisance, at Uitvlugt Ground, in Essequibo, Bayrock in Linden and also No. Five Ground in Berbice.”
Aside from player development, the Youth Ensemble has also been used to develop personnel, as told by the Technical Director.
“So, for the very first time, we’re able to utilise match coordinators that were officially trained by FIFA on the match coordinators course that was organised in 2024. We were able to utilise those persons for the day-to-day execution of the matches in the region, and that was done successfully,” he shared.
Joseph went on to add, “Also, we want to congratulate the new batch of referees that came to the fore. We had organised a referee training programme for potential referees, and we had quite a few youths that were involved in that training, and throughout the course of the regional phase, we had those referees work on delivering performances for those matches.”
The U13 competition will kick off on Saturday, August 15, while the U15 division gets underway on Sunday, August 16. The semi-finals and finals are set for Saturday, August 29, and Sunday, August 30.