The much-anticipated Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) football competitions kick off on Saturday, September 8 with the opening ceremony at Montego Bay Sports Complex at Catherine Hall.

At that venue, defending all-island kingpins Jamaica College (JC) are to tackle Hydel High in the Manning Cup, while daCosta Cup champions Rusea’s High face Green Island High. A number of other games are scheduled for different venues on the day.

At the glitzy launch at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel yesterday, it was confirmed that schoolboy football will have telecommunications provider Digicel and manufacturing giants Wisynco taking over as joint title sponsors.

Digicel, in their second stint, is main sponsor of the corporate area Manning Cup and Walker Cup competitions to the tune of $75m over three years.

Wisynco, through its brands Wata and Freshhh, is headline sponsor for the rural area daCosta Cup and Ben Francis knockout tournaments. Wisynco’s three-year deal is $31.5 million per annum.

The combined sponsorship between the two is $168m over the contract period which breaks down to $57m per year.

The contract between previous single title sponsor Flow and ISSA had been $150m over five years for $30m a year.

Schools have the opportunity to collect prize monies amounting to over $3.5m across all competitions.

Digicel Jamaica CEO Justin Morin said his organisation is very excited to be a major partner with ISSA for the staging of the 2018 schoolboy football season.

“For me, it brings pure delight to announce the newly renamed Digicel Manning Cup and Digicel Walker Cup competitions. Supporting schoolboy football is very important to all of us at Digicel because we see it as an investment in the future of some of Jamaica’s most talented athletes,” said Morin.

“With the expansion of the rivalry between urban and rural schools in the newly renamed ISSA Champions Cup, the competition will no doubt continue to grow in strength as one of the premier sporting events in the calendar. I would like to applaud ISSA for the excellent job they have done to raise the level of organisation, competition and participation each year,” Morin pointed out.

William Mahfood, chairman of the Wisynco Group, outlined that they are really excited to be renewing their sponsorship deal with ISSA.

“This is our sixth year through our various brands we have been involved in schoolboy football, and this year, specifically, we will be the title sponsor of the daCosta Cup,” Mahfood revealed.

“The three years is just a small part of Wisynco’s commitment to the development of schools, schoolboy athletics and education as a whole,” he added.

Andrei Roper, brand manager of associate sponsor Restaurants of Jamaica (KFC), explained they will be contributing $18 million and will pay $500 for every goal scored in the first round of the competition, which he quipped “is going to be a big deal”.

He added: “This is really a pleasure for the Restaurants of Jamaica family particularly the KFC brand, it’s a bit of dejavu for us, I remember the KFC brand being in this very room some years agoand our involvement with schoolboy football alongside Digicel.”

SportsMax is a major media partner and will broadcast selected matches live — their deal is worth just over $46 million annually.

President and CEO of SportsMax Oliver McIntosh said they have been a driving force in sports across the Caribbean and they are proud to not only remain as broadcasters for the schoolboy football but now investors.

“We are doubling down on our investments to become a sponsor of schoolboy football to the tune of, on an annual basis, over $46m to ISSA. That is a combination of our sponsorship and our broadcast and our production investment into schoolboy sports. We stand committed in the Caribbean,” McIntosh outlined.