The 50th season of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) will be the last in its current format.
Currently the league is played five Zones—North, East, Central, South and Tobago—but from next year, there will be a 14-team Premier Division made up of the top four teams from the North, East and South Zones as well as the top two teams from the Central Zone.
This was announced by SSFL president Anthony Creed during the official launch of the competition at the Hasely Crawford Stadium VIP Lounge, Port of Spain, yesterday.
The 2013 league kicks off tomorrow at Hasely Crawford Stadium with a North Zone encounter between East Mucurapo and St Mary’s College from 3.30 p.m., followed by an exhibition game between 2012 InterCol champions St Anthony’s College and last year’s League champions Carapichaima East Secondary from 5.30 p.m.
Action in the rest of the zones will kick off on Friday.
In his address yesterday, Creed gave a brief history of the league, highlighting its development over the years and explaining the future development of the league in years to come.
Looking back, he said the SSFL was established in 1964 and was known as the Colleges Football League in which six colleges with close to 200 young men took part.
He said the league has grown to include 110 schools, 66 of which have girl’s teams that campaign in the league.
“From 200 participants in 1964, there are over 5,000 students from schools with approximately 1,300 girls engaged in development work and competitions,” Creed pointed out.
Looking ahead he said: “The winners in the zones (in 2013) will participate in 2014 in a National Premier Division involving 14 schools.
“The other schools will take part in the Zonal Championship Division. Promotion and relegation will involve three schools being demoted to the Zonal Championship Division and the winners of the Zone will participate in a National Play-off to decide which three schools will be promoted to the Premier Division,” Creed explained.
He noted that Tobago opted not to commit to the new format because of the new changes they are experimenting with for the 2013 season.
Tobago Zone will be expanded from five teams in 2012 to eight teams this season.
Explaining why Tobago decided not to participate “as yet” in the Premier Division, Creed said: “It is the first time they will be participating in an eight-school Championship Division and they needed time to review this change.
“Even if the funding is provided for a minimum seven trips to Trinidad, it is physically demanding on the young men and considered physiologically unsound. Imagine seven trips to Trinidad during eight weeks of football,” he reasoned.
Creed also thanked the leagues major sponsors BG Trinidad and Tobago, First Citizens Bank, and Coca Cola for their “invaluable” contributions to the SSFL over the years.
He also thanked the Sport Company (SPORTT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports for its contribution to the lower levels of the SSFL for the 2012 season.
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