Namilco Football Festival

By Kizan Brumell

This Sunday marks the final evening of contests in the second annual Fruta Conquerors organized Namlico Knockout Football Festival as the final and third place showdown are expected to be played at the Providence National Stadium.

In a briefing yesterday in the boardroom of the Guyana National Milling Company (Namilco), Fruta Conquerors President Marlan Cole stated that on Sunday the third place showdown is the first event on the programme with Fruta Conquerors taking on Sunburst Camptown at 4:00pm while Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United and BK International Western Tigers battle for the Namilco Football Festival Trophy at 6:00pm.

CEO of Namilco Bert Sukhai (third left) presents the 2008 Namilco Football Festival Trophy to Secretary of the Fruta Conquerors Lavern Fraser-Thomas (third right) while Namilco’s Operations  and Marketing Manager Ralph Hemsingh (second left) and Damon Pistano (second  right), GABA President Affeeze Khan (left) and Fruta Conquerors President Marlan Cole (right) look on. (Clairmonte Marcus photo)
CEO of Namilco Bert Sukhai (third left) presents the 2008 Namilco Football Festival Trophy to Secretary of the Fruta Conquerors Lavern Fraser-Thomas (third right) while Namilco’s Operations and Marketing Manager Ralph Hemsingh (second left) and Damon Pistano (second right), GABA President Affeeze Khan (left) and Fruta Conquerors President Marlan Cole (right) look on. (Clairmonte Marcus photo)

He further stated that there will be a PeeWee (Under 11) Memorial Match between  Fruta Conquerors and Sunburst Camptown in honour of the late national player Neil Hernandez and Delon Monderson who were both Fruta Conqueror players.

A fee of $500 will be charged to witness ‘The Tigers’  oppose ‘The Hammer’  for the grand prize of $400,000 and the Namilco Football Festival Trophy. Fruta Conquerors and Sunburst Camptown will battle in a ‘clash of juices’ third place showdown and  the winner will walk away with $100,000 while the tournament runner-up and fourth place finishers will receive $200,000 and $50,000 respectively.

Tickets will be redeemable as spectators will have a chance to win one of four Namilco hampers in a half-time promotion where a ticket number will be called and the spectator with that number will receive the hamper.

“The employees and management of Namilco are pleased so far with the management and general conduct of this, the second Namilco Football Festival Tournament,” Chief Executive Officer of Namilco Bert Sukhai said in his opening remarks.

He also congratulated the teams for the final then wished those who were not so fortunate better luck for the future.

“There was one major controversy which erupted and caused the finals and third place playoff to be postponed after it was rescheduled to be played on Sunday, November 9.
Namilco fully understands the reason for the postponement and accepts the decision made by the Football authorities (GFF),”  Sukhai further stated.

In closing he expressed the hope that it would be a final similar to yesteryear when it came down to a nail-biting penalty kick-out that went right down to the wire and eventually Guyana Defence Force was crowned the 2007 Namilco Champions.