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KSAFA seeks to strengthen youth football
January 23, 2023
The Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) will be extending the duration of their Under-17 competition to advance the development of the age group in the region.
KSAFA president Mark Bennett also revealed that they are looking to revive their Under-20 competition, which was abandoned in 2017 because of a lack of sponsorship after former president Wayne Shaw took control.
Bennett, however, maintains that the focus is to increase the Under-17 tournament by about two months, to allow the young players more playing time.
"Our calendar speaks to U20 and U17 this year. We are looking to revive our U20 competition. We are supposed to have our U20 in February but we are doing some adjustments and we already have a partner on board.
"The U17 is what we are going to start with and what we want to do, especially with the U17 and U20, is that in the past teams play in a zone and play four games and that is it. That is not enough for development," he said.
"We want to have the youngsters playing for at least three to four months of the year and we want to extend it going forward.
"We are spending a lot of time on how we can make our youth programmes better, how we can position them that it brings benefits to the clubs, the association and by extension Jamaica," he stated.
Meanwhile, the Under-13 and Under-15 competitions will take place over the summer months as well, while the Under-10 will remain a quarterly competition.
"We are coming with some exciting things for youth competitions this year as we believe our youth programme is our strength and it is one that we will be focusing on to bring us better players for the future, so the clubs can also get benefits on a whole," he added.
