Changes coming for senior schoolboy football

Ryon Jones, Sunday Gleaner Writer

At least two changes are coming for next season's senior schoolboy football competition, as the format for the urban area Manning Cup, will be amended. A new sponsor will also be on-board.

In an effort to eliminate the need for teams to contest more than two games per week, the competition's organisers, the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), will be increasing the number of zones.

"One sure thing is that in the Manning Cup we are going to have a minimum of seven zones as opposed to six now," ISSA's competition co-ordinator, George Forbes pointed out. "That is a given, it is going to change because if we had seven zones this year we wouldn't have had any problems relating to the frequency of games. Certainly for next year we are going to have seven zones of six (teams), instead of six zones of seven (teams)."

ISSA is also searching for a new associate sponsor as Scotiabank, Forbes said, has decided not to renew its contract.

"This is Scotiabank's last year but all the other sponsors have three-year contracts," Forbes disclosed. "We are looking for a sponsor to replace Scotiabank and hopefully it will happen soon. I don't think it will be difficult to get sponsors for schoolboy football," he stated.

The other associate sponsor of the competition is KFC, while the title sponsors are Pepsi and Digicel.

Forbes' main disappointment with how the 2010 season went was the frequency with which some schools had to play.

"The low point would be the outcry from some people without even understanding the reasons why we had to ask the boys to play the matches," Forbes expressed. "For the most part the boys didn't have a problem with it." He added that the majority of those who are complaining are the ones who did not do well.

Quality of football

He also praised the rural daCosta Cup teams for their quality of football.

Forbes said: "The high point would be the daCosta Cup and the fact that we had four quality teams going through to the semi-finals and the crowd at Jarrett Park for the daCosta Cup final. I would say the daCosta was the high point, especially from the quarter-finals where we had exciting and very competitive football."

Members of the Lennon High community cried foul after the daCosta Cup final was played at Jarrett Park, which is believed to have given an unfair advantage to Rusea's High.

"daCosta finals are always contested at Jarrett Park, regardless of the teams involved," Forbes reminded. "With the number of people who were at Jarrett Park, if that match were to be played elsewhere it would have been a logistic nightmare with serious security risks."

Forbes also believes there was no action ISSA could have taken as it relates to the missed handball in the daCosta final which resulted in the game's lone goal.

"We can't do anything about it. We have seen where FIFA, which is the governing body for football can't do anything about it (handball)," he concluded.