Sha­keeme Oc­tave hit two blis­ter­ing first-half strikes and a bril­liant so­lo ef­fort from Akeel Paul guid­ed the Ma­yaro All Star team to a pul­sat­ing 3-0 win over Seed of Great­ness Biche FC in an ex­hi­bi­tion match which launched the 2023 bpTT-AMSF Ma­yaro Foot­ball League at the up­grad­ed Ma­yaro Recre­ation Ground last Sun­day.

Fit­ting­ly decked in red and white in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the Re­pub­lic Day hol­i­day on which the game was played, the com­bined Ma­yaro team seemed to take what was sup­posed to be friend­ly en­ter­tain­ment for the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny much more se­ri­ous­ly than their op­po­nents and dom­i­nat­ed the en­tire match against a foe who will en­ter the league as the de­fend­ing champs, to emerge de­served win­ners.

This was re­flect­ed by two-goal hero Oc­tave af­ter the match, “We were geared up and de­ter­mined to win. I’ve ad­mired this com­pe­ti­tion since I was young, and it is a great plat­form for play­ers of any age to com­pete and en­ter­tain our foot­ball-lov­ing com­mu­ni­ty.”

He con­tin­ued, “ It was great to be back out and com­pet­ing in the Ma­yaro Foot­ball League and my goals were due to the over­all team ef­fort. I look for­ward to play­ing with Top Form FC when the league starts.”

The cer­e­mo­ny marked the re­turn of the pop­u­lar league, cur­rent­ly man­aged by the All Ma­yaro Sports Foun­da­tion (AMSF), which is re­turn­ing af­ter a four-year hia­tus trig­gered by the re­stric­tions im­ple­ment­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. The tour­na­ment has been around since 1998 and sup­port­ed by en­er­gy com­pa­ny bpTT since its in­cep­tion.

The sup­port from the en­er­gy gi­ant seems set to con­tin­ue as, speak­ing on be­half of the en­er­gy gi­ant, project pro­duc­tion team lead, Kester Alex­is stat­ed, “This part­ner­ship with the AMSF is just one facet in terms of nur­tur­ing an all-round­ed com­mu­ni­ty. With a proud foot­ball lega­cy, this beau­ti­ful game em­braces the strength of uni­ty that sport brings, while de­vel­op­ing life skills in the par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ing ded­i­ca­tion and team­work.”

He con­tin­ued, “This league is a great plat­form for young peo­ple to ex­press pos­i­tive en­er­gy and up­lift them­selves. It is al­so a nur­tur­ing ground for fu­ture stars and pow­ered by their en­er­gy, we ex­pect an ex­cel­lent com­pe­ti­tion.”

Fea­tur­ing clubs from across the south-east­ern re­gion, this year’s league, which of­fi­cial­ly kicked off yes­ter­day, has al­ready at­tract­ed over ten teams which will com­pete in a re­vamped for­mat, an open com­pe­ti­tion—the Raza­ck Jan league where play­ers of any age can reg­is­ter and com­pete—as well as the Le­ston Paul Knock­out Cup.

As part of the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, the AMSF al­so ho­n­oured sev­er­al per­sons who have con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of foot­ball at the com­mu­ni­ty and na­tion­al lev­el.

Re­cip­i­ents who proud­ly ac­cept­ed plagues in­clud­ed Pe­ter Al­fred, Randy Ha­gley, Joseph Weekes, Sta­cy-Ann Syl­van, An­der­son Si­mon, Don­na­may McIn­tosh, Donville Chi­tan, Wayne Oc­tave, Wen­dell Perez and Shezir Mo­hammed.

Oth­er no­table per­sons at­tend­ing the open­ing in­clud­ed Tri­cia Lynch, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Hy­dro Tech Lim­it­ed and Renelle Kissoon, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Coun­cil­lor for Co­cal-Mafek­ing.

T&T Su­per League pres­i­dent, Jame­son Rigues, who was re­cent­ly pro­mot­ed to the role of AMSF Chair­man, ex­plained that in or­der to en­cour­age greater youth par­tic­i­pa­tion, the league will al­so fea­ture a Youth Foot­ball Fes­ti­val dur­ing a yet to be fi­nalised week­end in Oc­to­ber.

“The re­new­al and re­birth of the Ma­yaro Foot­ball League is an­oth­er step in terms of re-en­gi­neer­ing the ap­proach of AMSF in terms of sports man­age­ment in the wider com­mu­ni­ty. To re­alise this broad vi­sion, how­ev­er, we need the sup­port of all stake­hold­ers. We must thank bpTT for em­pow­er­ing our com­mu­ni­ty through the av­enue of sport. I in­vite peo­ple from all over the coun­try to vis­it us and wit­ness the spec­ta­cle that is the Ma­yaro Foot­ball League,” Rigues of­fered.

The at­ten­dees of the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny and ex­hi­bi­tion match were en­ter­tained by per­for­mances from the Pan­han­dle Steel Or­ches­tra and Abyssinia Folk Per­form­ers.