From bankers to burger flippers, representatives of Cayman’s businesses community pulled on their football boots on Saturday to raise cash for rising soccer stars to compete in Florida.
The Corporate Cup, held at the Outpost Field in George Town, raised money for the Academy Sports Club’s youth teams to attend the Disney Cup in Orlando in July.
Organised by Paul Byles, director and CEO of First Regent’s Bank and a youth coach with the Academy club, the tournament featured 16 teams from a variety of local businesses, including Butterfield Bank, Burger King, CML and Deloitte.
The ultimate winners of the seven-a-side tournament were the Ritz-Carlton Lions, who defeated the Butterfield Dragons in the final.
Byles said the standard was extremely high.
“Everybody seemed to have a lot of fun,” he said. “We were not necessarily expecting it to be as competitive as it was. The standard was very good, the teams have played well and everyone enjoyed themselves.”
Byles said the teams had contributed an entry fee, which would go toward funding the Disney trip. Some of the players going to the tournament helped out as field marshals and referees.
Byles added: “We actually had four qualified youth referees, including three from the academy, running the matches. They are all under-17 and they ran the games well. Most of the players were adults but they were very successful in controlling the games and the players were respectful of them.”
Byles, who coaches the Academy’s U-13 silver team, said the club is taking five youth teams to the tournament. He said exposure to high level competition overseas is crucial for developing players in the Cayman Islands.
“That is one of the things we do well,” he said. “They played Swindon Town when they were here in February and drew 2-2. We also played Harbour View from Jamaica and we lost overall in that series.
“The results are not so important, we focus on the experience the kids get.
“We’ve played in Dallas, we’ve played at the Disney Cup and we have had playing trips in Europe. I think the exposure is very important. It is good for them to understand the way the game is played elsewhere.
“From a cultural point of view it is also very good for them to get experience of being in another country. This is a small island so we make a huge effort on that side of things.”
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