The organisers of the annual Bayhill under-19 Premier Cup have announced that the finals for this year’s Easter soccer showpiece will take place at Athlone Stadium.
Established in 1989, the tournament is a highlight on the local soccer calendar and will celebrate its 34th anniversary this year.
In 2018, the event was cancelled due to the drought experienced in the Western Cape, and the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, says tournament director Rayaan Allie who has been involved as an organiser since 2005.
“So we are 34 years old and have hosted 32 successful tournaments,” he said.
The last of the preliminary qualifiers were played at Elsbury Park in Matroosfontein, in January, with FC Porto, Grassy Park United, JL Zwane, City Kings, Young Bafana, Dunoon Academy, Greenwood Athletic, Clover FC, Queen’s Park, Hellenic, Hazendal United, Matroosfontein, Rygersdal and Jomo’s Power securing their spots at the tournament.
Automatic qualifiers are Cape Town Spurs (champions), Cape Town City, Stellenbosch, Safa Invitational XI and hosts, Bayhill United.
“Our biggest challenge over the last few years, which I am no stranger to, is finance,” Allie said.
“We have struggled to secure a principal partner for the event. Although it must be said that our efforts had died down after the Covid lockdown. With the re-introduction of the tournament in 2022 we made some strides in securing a renewal sponsorship,” he said.
Allie has a unique insight into the inner workings of the competition as he has been involved with the tournament for more than 20 years – as a player, then service provider to the principal sponsor, then being a sponsor and becoming a corporate partner through the company he worked for, to being placed on the tournament’s local organising committee (LOC).
He was also part of the Santos team that won the tournament at Stephen Reagan in Westridge, in 1999, alongside former national player Nasief Morris and others.
“I was groomed in secondment for a number of years alongside PJ Williams, the late Roger Clayton, Michael Bruyns and the rest of the LOC long-standings members,” he said.
“Logistics is always more challenging with financial constraints as we have to ‘take from Peter to give to Paul’ in order to make sure we are compliant firstly, then also put on a showcase which resonates with the high quality of football, players and officials at the event,” he said.
“It takes an exorbitant amount of money to put this event together successfully – and unlike other smaller events of this nature, BPC is not run as a fund-raiser for Bayhill United FC. We exhaust all our financial and support in aid of football to ensure that our event remains the number one youth football event on the continent, as it has been for decades and hopefully will continue to be just that,” he said.
