Eight sub-associations of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) will battle for supremacy in the Pepsi Cup Under-17 football championship billed to kick off on December 8 with four matches at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground. At the official launch yesterday at the GFF headquarters in Campbell-ville, Alanna Johnson, Mar-keting Assistant of Demerara Distillers Ltd. (DDL), local bottlers of Pepsi said that DDL and Pepsi were pleased to be sponsors of the tournament for the past two years and hoped that the tournament would contribute towards the development of young footballers who would be taking part. She added, “while the ultimate goal for each team is to win, participation in this tournament will also help to foster discipline and teamwork among these impressionable youths, so Pepsi is happy to be contributing to the total development of these young footballers.”

The eight competing sub-associations will be divided into two groups with East Coast Demerara, East Bank Demerara, Berbice and Upper Demerara playing in Group ‘A’ while George-town, Essequibo, Bartica and West Demerara will contest Group ‘B’. GFF Competi-tions Coordinator Lawrence “Sparrow” Griffith disclosed that the tournament will start on December 8 with the final set for January 26 at a venue to be finalised.

East Coast will square off with East Bank in the opening fixture at GFC at 10:00 hours followed by a showdown between Essequibo and Bartica at 12:00 h.

Berbice will battle with Upper Demerara at 14:00 h while Georgetown will go into action against West Demerara at 16:00 h.