The Old Madrid Football Club will be creating some local history when it hosts its first annual Invitational Masters Football Championships this weekend at the A.O. Shirley Grounds. The old boys will also hope to cap it off by turning home turf advantage into a championship crown. Photo: Provided

It will be the first time that such a championship, which runs from October 20 -21, 2012 at the A.O. Shirley Recreational Grounds, will be held in the Territory.

Teams from Tortola, Virgin Gorda and the U.S. Virgin Islands will participate in this inaugural event, including archrivals Retroactive Masters from St. Croix. 

The Old Madrid Football Club is the VI’s only officially designated Masters Football Club, consisting primarily of former VI National Team players who are now in their 40s but still enjoy playing the game. Two other local Masters teams, the Combined Stars and the VG Masters have emerged to contest for the championship trophy. 

President of the Old Madrid Masters F.C., Mr. Humphry Leue, told Virgin Islands News Online that the club is looking forward to highly competitive and well run tournament. “Hopefully all will go well and we can build on it in the future.”

Mr Leue also said the Club was long pondering on the possibility of hosting a Masters Tournament. “It is something that we have been thinking about for a few years now and whenever we travel to other tournaments teams there ask us when the BVI would be holding a [Masters] tournament.”

“We are very excited to finally host our own tournament.  We are making a modest start with four confirmed teams, and hope to build on this year’s success”… The BVI is known for its well-organised sporting events and as the hosts we want to ensure that we put on a high quality tournament in all aspects.  We are grateful to our sponsors, Road Town Wholesale and Nagico Insurance Company for their support, and we invite the entire BVI public, particularly all football fans, to come out this weekend and watch some exciting matches with skillful football on display,” Mr Leue had stated previously in a press release.

The Club President also said preparations have been going well and that the club has had several friendly matches against some of the local teams for the past few weeks,  “and we are confident that we will be prepared. We are yet to see how strong the other teams are because we have not played against them. We do know that St. Croix has a very strong team because we have been playing against them in other tournaments in the Region so we expect them to come full force even though we beat them the last time [we met],” Mr Leue proudly stated.

The Club has been participating for several years in various regional  tournaments , most notably in Antigua, St. Maarten, St. Kitts and St Croix, and has consistently performed well, including winning several  championships.

The tournament will kick-off on Saturday, October 20, 2012 at 11 A.M. and will continue throughout the day whereby all teams will face each-other in a round-robin tournament format.  On Sunday the action will continue from 11 A.M. as well. 

There will also be women’s football exhibition matches on both days where the ladies’ skills will be on display following last year’s launch of the women’s football league, as well as youth football exhibition matches featuring teams from various schools in the territory who also participated in last season’s exciting school football league.

Admission to the A.O. Shirley Grounds will be $5 each day for Adults and $2 for children under 17 years of age.