Battle for knock-out spots in Business League football

 With only eight spots up for grabs, a number of teams will battle over the weekend, hoping to advance to the knock-out stage of the 2017 Business League Football.
In Zone 1, West Indies Oil Company secured their spot sitting on the top of the pedestal with 30 points followed by Law Enforcers with 26, Hermitage Bay with 25 and Jolly Beach with 22.
Enforcers however could find themselves dropping into the third slot as Hermitage Bay have a game in hand.
Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board also cemented their spot for the knockout, sitting comfortably on 28 points in the top position in Zone 2. Two points shy is Drews Trucking while St. John’s Development Corporation is in third position with 24 points.
The battle for the fourth and final spot will come down to one final match between Verandah and National Parks who have 22 and 21 points respectively. They will meet on Saturday in a must-win scenario.
One of the organisers of the tournament, Holice Simon gave word on how the knock-out stage would run.
“The first round of the knock-out stage will see the teams in Zone 1 cross over and play those in Zone 2.
“This means that the number one seeded team in Zone 1 will face the Number 4 seeded team in Zone 2 and the second-place team in Zone 1 will meet the third-place team in Zone 2 and so on.
“Of course, it’s an elimination match and from there we will have four teams.”
The former goal-keeper, in discussing the the scheduling of games, noted the difficulty in scheduling specific times due to the working hours of some of the teams.
“We will play the first round of games in venues around the country. Then for the semis and finals we are looking at playing at either the Antigua Recreation Grounds or the Radio Range field.
“We were hoping to schedule games on Friday and even on Saturday afternoons but teams already said that they prefer Saturday games. Only issue is that some of the players not only work certain hours but some are Seventh-day Adventists and we don’t want to limit anyone.”
A final say will be made on the scheduling of the matches later this week as the knock-out stage is expected to kick off next Monday.