By Neto Baptiste
The country’s technical director for football and former national player, Sowerby Gomes, is calling on clubs to place more focus on the development of women’s football.
His plea comes ahead of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association’s (ABFA) launch of it’s Women’s Knockout Classic, starting on Sunday, with the first of three instalments of the tournament designed to provide teams with valuable game time ahead of the body’s league competition.
“Not satisfied with the growth; I think the clubs need to concentrate more on the female side. In addition to the clubs doing that, the ABFA will be forging an initiative through our TDS coordinator as it relates to growth of youth football with females across the country and that will be starting within the next month or so, but lots need to be done towards the growth of female football right across our communities,” he said.
Eight teams, including reigning champions Lady Fort Road, will compete for top honours, across three weekends starting on Sunday, with the winning teams walking away with $2500 while runners- up will take home $1000.
Reporting that teams have been in preparation mode for quite some time, Gomes said there have been some challenges of which the association is aware.
“There are a couple of challenges that the teams would have had and one of those, based on the feedback, is having a number [enough] balls in which to practice with but they are making do right now and preparations have been consistent with all the various teams so far. We are in the process of giving the teams balls. We have ordered some so as soon as they reach on island then certainly, teams will be distributed their balls,” the TD said.
Matches, slated to kick off at 3:00pm at the FA’s Technical Center, will run for 30 minutes with 15-minute-halves with the winners advancing to the next round until only one team is left standing.
Gomes said there will also be cash rewards for outstandings individual performances.
“We’ll have individual awards going out for the best defender and they will earn around $200, the golden boot award will be around $200, best midfielder is $200, best goalkeeper is $200 and overall MVP of the classic will get EC $700,” he said.
Following Sunday’s Knockout Classic, teams will compete again on June 29 and July 6 with the women’s league slated to start on August 10.
The other teams are Lady 5P’s Wadadli, Empire Trendsetters, Lady Masters, Cutting Edge FC, Young Warriors FC, Ottos Tigress and Wadadli United.
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