Following a successful transition from Street Football to the internationally recognised Futsal, organisers and sponsors of the LIME National Street Futsal Competition are eager to get the ball rolling on another project that will be instrumental to the development of football in Jamaica.

The LIME National Street Futsal Competition attracted immense support from its kick off in late March, to its conclusion inside a packed and completely transformed National Indoor Sports Centre last Sunday.

The new, exciting and highly competitive version of football, was a formal introduction to an internationally recognised development format of the game to Jamaica, and registered over 1,400 goals.

A total of 240 teams from across the 14 parishes, plus the Municipality of Portmore participated for a share of the lucrative prize package valued at $4.5 million, which was shared among parish and national champions.

In the end, it was the Southborough-based Young Madrid out of Portmore that took home the grand prize of $1.5 million and the championship trophy, when they defeated Bath Sports Club of St Thomas 4-2 in the final.

Carlo Redwood, vice-president of by The AdBlocker”> Marketing at LIME, expressed pleasure at the outcome of the tournament, which was initially staged with the intention of establishing a national team.

“It was always our intention to give the World Cup feel to Jamaica, and with the help of the agencies Main Event, Creative Sport, among others, it was a huge success. We transformed the National Indoor Sports Centre into what was comparative to any Futsal venue in the world, and we have given that to our customers and fans of Futsal, so we are excited about the crowd support that we saw,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Having tried their hand at Street Football and Super Cup, Redwood explained that the telecommunications firm has “learnt” how to organise and work with the best agencies to go beyond what the fans expect.

“We have learnt how to by The AdBlocker”> connect with the communities as a brand; we have always brought activities into the communities, from Champs to Futsal to Super Cup, and we continue to do that. It is just a formula that we have found and the right way to do it, and it is always about trying to deliver more in terms of what the fans expect,” he noted.

Redwood believes that Futsal is an incredible way of exposing talents to football clubs, the national programme, as well as creating a solid foundation for a nation’s football future.

“With Futsal, it was always working towards the development of football and it has revolved around spreading it at the different levels. So high school is the first level that we want to expand into, and we are excited about what is going to come in the future,” he said.

“But certainly, we want to get into another parish type tournament next year and as Flow, we want to make it a regional competition eventually. We want to get into a national programme for Futsal, so we have a lot of big plans for it and we are going to continue to gain more sponsors coming behind it, because over the next couple of years it will be the biggest thing in Jamaica,” he added.

In many countries across the world, the Futsal format has been the worldwide platform for football development at both the national and club level.

The Futsal tournament is an official FIFA-sanctioned tournament that is played on a smaller field and mainly played indoors. It can be considered a version of five-a-side football, which was developed in Brazil in the 1930s and 1940s.

In Brazil, Futsal is played by more people than standard football and has seen several Futsal players move on to careers as successful professional football players.

Futsal is a game played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlimited substitutions are permitted. The surface, ball and rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity and technique, as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.

Mitch Watson, by The AdBlocker”> marketing manager of Pepsi Cola Jamaica, was delighted by the outcome of the tournament and described their partnership with LIME as “long and fruitful”.

“I think it is a good thing for us; I think the partnership with LIME has been a really good one and you could tell by the crowd that showed up for the final at the National Indoor Sports Centre.” he added.

Meanwhile, David Shirley, chairman/executive director at Locker Room Sports, was the man behind the gear and bibs worn by the players, and he was happy with his by The AdBlocker”> investment.

“I think it has been fantastic, we are so happy to be a part of this as Locker Room sports has been in football for many years providing uniforms, and partnering with LIME with Velle sports international was a pleasure,” he pointed out.

For Debbie Grant, by The AdBlocker”> marketing manager of Huawei Technology Jamaica, the sponsorship was an instrumental one as it keeps in line with her company’s commitment to development.

“It has been a wonderful sponsorship for us; Huawei is dedicated to the development of the youth in Jamaica,” said Grant.