KSAFA leagues start today

The Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) senior football competitions get under way this weekend, with a full slate of matches in the Championship and Major League, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Despite a few challenges that have made the start of the season a bit more challenging than usual, president of KSAFA Mark Bennett believes they are in for a great season.

One of the incentives for teams in the championship is the additional $1 million placed on the prize money for winning the title, which brings it to a total of $2 million for the eventual winners.

“The leagues kick off Saturday without the launch. The launch has been cancelled as there were some logistical issues. There was not sufficient time to pull everything together for the launch,” Bennett explained.

“But the leagues are on still. We will have a softer launch next week with one of our associate sponsors, McKay Security, who has sponsored an additional prize money of $1 million to the winner of the championship.

“So the winner of the championship will get $2 million, a huge sum to help them transition to Tier II. So all the teams are looking forward to winning the prize money,” he said.

One of the features added to this season’s competitions will be the playing of doubleheaders at community fields instead of at centralised venues.

“We will be playing doubleheaders in the communities. Unlike the past when we played at a central venue. We have a few weeks of games to be played, doubleheaders, at community venues.

“For example at Santos, Constant Spring, Duhaney Park. It will be about eight weeks of doubleheader community games that are scheduled.

“We will sit with the teams and decide on the actual schedule and we would like the communities to come out and support,” he continued.

The league was actually scheduled to start last November, but had some unforseen delays said Bennett, who has no doubts they will complete the season on time.

“The first problem was Melissa and then with the schoolboy season resuming we didn’t want to crowd the calendar. So it was important to get those out the way, so we could focus on our leagues, as many schoolboys will be representing parish teams also.

“The fixtures will be completed ahead of time. We have a league management system and everything is organised by the management system. So we can tweak it when it comes down to the dates, but we will finish ahead of the World Cup and the qualifiers for Tier II. We anticipate no problem. So we should not have an issue finishing before the (World Cup) tournament.”

He noted that KSAFA is in the final year of their three-year sponsorship with Wray & Newphew and is hoping they can continue their relationship with the brand.

“We are in our third and final year of the sponsorship with Wray & Nephew. So it’s about an extention or renewal. We haven’t had a discussion as yet. However, there are some tentative things but at least for this season, we are secure,” he added

In the championship matches on Saturday, Olympic play Cooreville, Duhaney Park oppose Red Hills and Shortwood take on Constant Spring in Zone One.

While in Zone Two, New Kingston tackle Brown Town, Seaview entertain Barbican and Boys’ Town battle August Town at 3 p.m.

In the Major League, Allman/Woodford go up against Mountain View, Santos host Rockfort, and Bull Bay play Central Kingston in Zone One.

In Zone Two, Meadhaven take on Pembroke Hall and Liguanea play Police Nationals, starting at 3 p.m. While Maverley rest.

Home teams named first.