The Con­fed­er­a­tion of North, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion Foot­ball (Con­ca­caf) and Sco­tia­bank an­nounced to­day the Sco­tia­bank Con­ca­caf Next Play Cup at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain on Thurs­day.

The sec­ond edi­tion of this in­vi­ta­tion­al youth tour­na­ment will be held from No­vem­ber 28 to De­cem­ber 7, in four Con­ca­caf Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tion coun­tries —Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Ba­hamas, Bar­ba­dos and Ja­maica.

The pan-re­gion­al com­pe­ti­tion, held in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Sco­tia­bank and each of the par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tion, is a pil­lar of Con­ca­caf NextPlay, a com­pre­hen­sive grass­roots de­vel­op­ment pro­gram. In­spired by the di­verse com­mu­ni­ties served by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, as well as its mis­sion, the pro­gramme em­pha­sizes the com­mit­ment of Con­ca­caf to so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and Sco­tia­bank’s com­mit­ment to the com­mu­ni­ties it op­er­ates. It pro­motes ac­cess to foot­ball as well as fos­ter­ing so­cial val­ues, in­clud­ing hard work, fair play, in­clu­sion, team­work and re­spect.

Over 2,000 boys and girls ages 10 to 11 will par­tic­i­pate in the tour­na­ment which will fea­ture a to­tal of 224 schools with­in the Caribbean. T&T's pro­gramme will see 64 schools com­pris­ing 650 boys and girls.

Be­fore the ac­tion on the field kicks off, the chil­dren will par­tic­i­pate in an acad­e­my to learn the fun­da­men­tals of how to play the sport, as well as so­cial val­ues and skills that will be vi­tal to their de­vel­op­ment as well-round­ed young peo­ple.

Last month, the acad­e­my con­sists of a one-month af­ter­school pro­gramme im­part­ed by 230 Con­ca­caf coach­es and vol­un­teers, who have been trained in grass­roots foot­ball and safe­guard­ing aware­ness to en­sure they can pro­vide safe and wel­com­ing de­vel­op­ment pro­grams for par­tic­i­pants.

“We are very ex­cit­ed to join forces with our part­ner Sco­tia­bank and mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions to host the sec­ond edi­tion of our Sco­tia­bank Con­ca­caf NextPlay Cup,” said Con­ca­caf Pres­i­dent Vic­tor Mon­tagliani. “By pro­vid­ing chil­dren in our re­gion with more ac­cess to play foot­ball and op­por­tu­ni­ties to grow up health­i­er, we can help de­vel­op their tal­ents, skills and in­tel­lect to suc­ceed in life.”

For Sco­tia­bank, foot­ball is a pas­sion that is shared with its cus­tomers, em­ploy­ees and com­mu­ni­ties. The Bank sup­ports foot­ball at all lev­els in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, be­cause of the val­ues it teach­es and its abil­i­ty to trans­form in­di­vid­u­als and build stronger, more vi­brant com­mu­ni­ties.

“We rec­og­nize that we play an im­por­tant part in our com­mu­ni­ties and our young peo­ple are vi­tal to the growth and pros­per­i­ty of these com­mu­ni­ties,” said Stephen Bag­narol SVP & Coun­try Head Sco­tia­bank Trinidad and To­ba­go. “That’s why this part­ner­ship with Con­ca­caf for the Sco­tia­bank Con­ca­caf NextPlay Cup is an ide­al way for us to help our young peo­ple have a bet­ter fu­ture. Through this pro­gramme, we seek to pro­mote life-long val­ues such as re­spect and in­tegri­ty as well as skills such as team­work and dis­ci­pline that pro­vide a sol­id foun­da­tion for our fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. Sco­tia­bank sup­ports youth de­vel­op­ment through its re­gion­al pro­gram Sco­tia­bank Fút­bol Club. Since 2014, more than 450,000 young peo­ple have ben­e­fit­ted from this Pro­gramme in the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca,” he added. “Sco­tia­bank is proud of its deep roots and strong com­mit­ment in the Con­ca­caf re­gions- sup­port­ing cur­rent and fu­ture foot­ball stars.”

As part of Sco­tia­bank’s sup­port for com­mu­ni­ties, the Bank will in­vest more than USD$65,000 across the re­gion to car­ry out a lega­cy pro­gramme where win­ning schools from all four coun­tries will be able to en­hance the sports fa­cil­i­ties of their choice. With this, Sco­tia­bank seeks to have a mean­ing­ful im­pact on its com­mu­ni­ties and pro­mote spaces where chil­dren and youth can come to­geth­er, re­in­force life skills and val­ues, and work for a bet­ter fu­ture.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing Con­ca­caf Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions have sanc­tioned the Sco­tia­bank Con­ca­caf NextPlay Cup, rec­og­niz­ing it as a top-class youth foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion. The pri­ma­ry part­ners of the tour­na­ment are the lo­cal Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion, which have ap­proved the schools’ par­tic­i­pa­tion to cre­ate a uni­fied com­pe­ti­tion that pro­motes the prac­tice of sports and tran­scends na­tion­al, cul­tur­al, and so­cioe­co­nom­ic bar­ri­ers.