By Neto Baptiste
The Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) is set to introduce a new competition that will see the top teams from all three divisions compete in a single-elimination formatted tournament.
This is according to the FA’s technical director for football, Sowerby Gomes, who explained how the tournament, which mirrors the once popular Super 8 competition, will work.
“We will select the top four based on the rankings out of the Premier Division who will play against the top two out of the First Division and the top two out of the Second Division,” he said.
“So that’s a group of eight teams and they go into a group of eight teams and they will go into what we will call the ABFA’s Club Championships which would add more excitement to the game, adding more revenue so that these teams would be able to walk away with more cash prizes.
The Super 8 competition, last held in 2017, followed a similar format and offered an opportunity to the top teams across all three divisions to win the grand prize of $13,000.
Gomes revealed also that the FA’s top flight will see a slight shift in format where, in the group stage, teams will have to draw the names of their opponents rather than having a fixed schedule.
“Since it’s now 14 teams at the Premier Division and 14 teams at in the First Division, they will play the first round [round robin format] and in the second round we will go into a group play where we will split the teams up unto two groups of seven. Once the teams are in two groups of seven, we are going to be making draws, so it would not be a predictable situation where you would know exactly who you will be playing until the selection or draw is made. There will be six games within each group but you will not know who you will be playing in the first round, so that is going to create a lot of excitement,” he said.
The anticipated start to the domestic season has been delayed by a month with the body’s Premier Division, originally slated to kick off on September 21, now scheduled to commence on October 19.
The First and Second Division competitions are now set to start on October 22 and 21, respectively.
