Local coordinator Mr Kenrick Grant stated that the BVI Masters team is comprised of players who have surpassed the age of forty and are still actively playing the game. The basic rule for Masters Football is that all players must be forty years and over. Photo: Supplied

The tournament is being sponsored by the Virgin Islands Department of Tourism as a lead up to the centennial celebrations of the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the USA, which would be celebrated in 2017. “This means that for the next three years we will be seeing masters’ football at its best in St Croix, ” said tournament coordinator Mr Earle Robinson. “The BVI Masters has built up a name for themselves throughout the region, so we are pleased that they would be here to test their skills against some former world stars,” Mr Robinson concluded.    

Local coordinator Mr Kenrick Grant stated that the BVI Masters team is comprised of players who have surpassed the age of forty and are still actively playing the game. The basic rule for Masters Football is that all players must be forty years and over. There will be prizes for the winners, as well as individual awards. The award for the oldest player should be going to seventy-year-old Alvin Corneal from Trinidad, while the BVI's oldest contender is sixty-year-old Beauston Brown. 

The BVI squad is comprised of Elroy Mandraka Mills – coach, Pheobe Murrell – Manager, Haenif James, Anthony Bramble, Rohan Lennon, Bernard Grant, Kenrick Grant, Gregory Grant, Richard Reid, Humphrey Leue, Courtney Johnson, Michael Dennis, Garnet Ferron, Adrin St Ville, Kelvin Eubanks, Beauston Brown, Rodney Prince, Sheldon Harry, Franklyn Victor and Avondale Williams.

“The most difficult part of the team’s preparations has been raising the necessary funds," stated Mr Grant, "so we are still appealing to anyone who might want to assist us financially.”

The team is partly sponsored by the BVI Football Association, which is limited with what it can do as Masters Football is not yet a recognised FIFA tournament.

Meanwhile, training continues this Tuesday evening at the Greenland Playing field.