By Neto Baptiste
The 2024/25 Schools Football Competition is set to kick off in October and coordinator of the schools’ programme, Rowan “Porridge” Benjamin, has announced a major change he thinks will positively impact the girl’s competition.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Benjamin revealed that the men’s competition will start on October 3rd with the under-20 games, while the female competition is slated to commence in January, some three months later than normal.
The former national coach is hoping the move will give coaches more time to prepare teams while also affording them time to recruit new players.
“We have noticed that the girls, in terms of girls’ football, its dwindling, and we need a new breed of players and that’s not coming forward I know that the ABFA would have had grassroots programmes and so on, but we are still not seeing enough girls. Two of the major situations in this first term is that it’s a large competition with five leagues and we spoke about that last year in terms of the under-14 to the under-20, and we have decided on that, along with the football association,” he said.
The move however means that the female league will run alongside other school competitions like netball, basketball and volleyball.
Benjamin said all possible outcomes and implications have been discussed with the relevant authorities.
“We are aware fully about that, but we thought that it was necessary to tie the female part of the schools’ football with the ABFA female season. We think that it was the best thing to do, and also the ABFA thinks that also, because now we will have the full use of the technical centre to play all the female matches,” the coordinator said.
Benjamin expressed concerns over what he says is dwindling numbers in not just football, but almost all school sports.
“Only a very few girls in the schools are playing sports, and that should not be, so hear what I asked my coaches to do: Please go and find these athletic people, go and find new players and bring them into football, so avoid interfering with the netballers or the basketballers. Football is a huge sport in the schools, every government school in this country plays football,” he said.
PMS dominated the girls competitions last season, winning both the under-20 and the under-16 championships.
