Claro makes $51m-link with INSPORTS community league

Andre Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

One of the largest, if not the largest football competition this side of the planet, the All-Island Community Football Championship, was launched yesterday inside the Venetian Lounge at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in New Kingston, as mobile giants Claro rolled out its mammoth $51-million, three-year partnership with the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS).

Some 12,000 unattached and at-risk young men from more than 800 communities across the island are expected to feature in this year's competition, an increase on the 10,000 players who took part in last year's inaugural staging, which saw Hanover's Claremont emerging has champions.

This year's victors will pocket an impressive $500,000 while the second-place team will walk away with $150,000, third place - $100,000, and fourth place - $50,000.

Claro's Media Manager Latoy Williams underlined her company's commitment to the development of the local youth product and highlighted their satisfaction at the level of interest that it has been able to generate and its impact on the youth.

Impressed with the impact

"We are very impressed with the impact it has had on the lives of many young men in the inner city who have found football as an excellent channel for their talents," Williams said. "Claro has invested in several sporting events with a view to build confidence in our young people. Sports is an excellent outlet for our youth and it also functions as a way to inculcate values such as integrity, honesty, hard work and teamwork."

Claro has been pumping a lot of funds into sports in recent times, particularly football, and only weeks ago announced a $27-million sponsorship of the Clarendon Football Association - the largest for any single parish body in Jamaica. They are also sponsors of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association to the tune of $100 million, as well as the St James Football Association, $12 million.

"At Claro, we believe that if we can reach our young people across the island we can affect a significant change in our culture for future generations," Williams added.

The competition kicks off on Sunday, November 28 at the Watson Taylor Park in Hanover, and INSPORTS administrative director Ian Andrews gave a run-down of the league's format, along with some insight as to the creation of the competition.

At the parish level, 32 teams will be placed in eight groups, each consisting of four teams. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the round of 16, with the winners advancing to later rounds until a parish champion is crowned.

Each parish winner will then compete at the national level in a straight elimination format, with each winner advancing and the last two remaining teams contesting the grand finals inside the National Stadium.

"This came about a couple of years ago when we went into a few so-called 'hot spot' communities. We decided to put on some sporting programmes in a holistic way in these communities, with a view of aiding in their development," said Andrews.

"When we went there, the same persons in the communities complained that whenever these competitions are staged only the well-known players got involved and that they felt left out, so the idea came to look at a competition that would target those persons who didn't have a chance to play in an organised competition," he added. "Its (competition) impact has been significant; last year over 50,000 Jamaicans said that they were positively affected by this programme."

VO5 and Oral B, as well as Ariel, have also contributed $1 million to the project and will also issue cash prizes of $20,000 to the most disciplined team from each parish.