Eight street football teams including Guyana’s representative for the inaugural Guinness Caribbean Street Football Challenge, Back Circle, will vie for $200,000 and a trophy when the Guinness Greatest of the Streets Exhibition Competition kicks off tonight at the new Albouystown Basketball Court.
Team Guyana (Back Circle) is using the five-night exhibition tournament as a warm up for the lucrative Caribbean Street Football Challenge, which commences on June 21 on the National Park tarmac.
In the exhibition competition, Back Circle will come up against teams from Albouystown, Alexander Village, Broad Street, D’Urban Street, Island All Stars, Tiger Bay and West Front Road.
Tonight, Broad Street will tackle Tiger Bay at 20:00 hrs, Back Circle will take on D’Urban Street at 20:45 hrs, West Front Road will face Alexander Village at 21:30 hrs and Albouystown will try to take advantage of their home court when they take on the Island All Stars at 22:15 hrs.
Round robin action will continue on May 30 on the East Ruimveldt Basketball Court, then on June 2 at the Burnham Court. The knockout round and the final will be played the National Cultural Centre tarmac on June 5 and 8 respectively.
The second place team will receive $100,000; third place $50,000 and fourth place $25,000. The remaining four teams will take home $15,000 each.
Admission will be free for the warm-up games.
Team Guyana (Back Circle), which won the last Guinness Greatest of the Streets Football competition, will tackle other winners of the same tournament from Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, St Lucia, St Vincent and Antigua during the three-night event.
The winner of the Caribbean Street Football challenge will receive US$4,000, a multi-purpose playing facility and bragging rights as the best street football team in the Caribbean.
After a round robin preliminary format, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-final. The winner of each semi-final will do battle in the final game which will be staged on June 23.
The first, second and third runners-up will receive US$2,000, US$1,500 and US$1,000 respectively.
