BARBADOS’ BEST FOOTBALLERS are about to be paid their worth – and then some.
Semi-professional football is coming on stream in a big way next month as the country’s best will do battle for a grand prize of $100 000 in the lucrative out-of-season LIME Pelican Football Challenge.
The inaugural tournament is set to become Barbados’ most fiscally rewarding competition in any local sporting arena, with organisers shelling out another $40 000 for the next three spots.
Tournament organiser and Member of Parliament Mia Mottley disclosed details of the tourney yesterday during a Press launch at the Island Inn Hotel, Aquatic Gap, St Michael.
“Some months ago I felt strongly that we had to start walking the walk instead of only talking the talk in relation to changing sports in Barbados to semi-professional and ultimately professional status,” said Mottley.
“We, therefore, at the Pelican Creative Services Inc. came up with the concept of moving football in Barbados to a semi-professional level, to ensure that the players are at the centre of what it is we are doing and are being paid for their performances.”
A group of prominent football enthusiasts have been contracted to an undisclosed sum of money to run ten franchises for the inaugural tournament.
But the owners aren’t the only ones who will be financially rewarded as each player will be required to sign a contract with those franchises while also being paid on a per game basis.
“People in Barbados play football for the love of it and long may that last because the passion for the sport is critical to ensure its continuity and to ensure its dominance, but at the same time, people have to pay bills,” said Mottley“People have to make sure that in developing that expertise that they are not counting themselves out of being able to support their families.”
Each owner will be allowed to choose five players around whom they will build the nucleus of their 22-man rosters.
Those owners will then fill out the rest of their squads via next week’s draft, where 250 of Barbados’ best players will be thrown into a pool and selected via a round-by-round process.
The competition is structured into two zones of five teams, who will play each other in a round-robin format at the University of the West Indies’ Paradise Park before the last-placed team of each group is eliminated.
The remaining eight teams then advance to the quarter-final stages, where the winners of each match will be guaranteed at least $10 000 for making the semi-finals.
“The time for skylarking is done,” said LIME’s country manager Alex McDonald in a message to the players.
“There is money riding on this. I don’t think you’re going to find another tournament that is better. I think this is by far and away the best tournament that we have.”
The round robin format is set to be played on Sunday and Thursday nights, and Mottley said that negotiations were in the works with international sports network Sportsmax over broadcasting rights.
