The encouragement of the private sector participation in the development and management of sports in Ghana is one of the government’s plans to make Ghana excel in her football administration in the years ahead.

With this new inspiration, and to appraise the state of youth football in Ghana today, the Mylik Sports Limited has given birth to a new football team, The Mylik Classic –19 Tournament.

The Myllk Classic Under –19 Tournament will become an annual affair on Ghana’s football calendar with the objective of providing an arena for talented young footballers, who would otherwise never have an opportunity to play on center stage, to showcase their skills and come into the limelight.

In a launching ceremony of the Mylik Classic 2002 Under –19 Football Tournament, the Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Edward Osei-Kwaku commended Mylik Sporting Limited for not only instituting the annual Under –19 Football Tournament, but established the Mylik Sporting Limited (MSL) as an integrated sports development, management and marketing firm.

The Minister for Youth and Sports appreciated the objectives of MLS which are consonance with the Government and the Ministry’s policy of private sector participation in national development plans, programmes and projects.

Hon. Edward Osei-Kwaku expressed the desire of his ministry to support all progressive programmes of MSL to achieve it objectives and targets for which it has been established.

The organisation of this tournament could not have come at a more appropriate time than now when there is an obvious yawning gab between the Under –17 and the Under –20 football programmes.

The Minister for Youth and Sports believes that twist tournament will undoubtedly enhance Ghana’s chances of maintaining her enviable position as a force to reckon with in world youth football.

He challenged the Ghana Football Association to find a way of transferring the achievement of the Youth level to the Senior National Team.

It is the expectation of the Minister to see this tournament attract more Youth Teams from all over the world and also extend its potential also attracting many investors and tourists into the country.

The Executive Officer of Mylik Sports Limited Mr. Kofi Bawuah has made a critical appraisal of the state of youth football in Ghana. And According to him, all is not well because he feels the youth football is bedevilled with just too many problems. There was no concrete well-co-ordinated youth football development format when the current Ghana Football Association (GFA) Chairman introduced the Five Year Youth Football Development Plan, He said.

Mr Kofi Bawuah lamented the situation where talented youth players were rushed too quickly into playing at the senior level, leading to early burnouts. Also lack of credible youth tournaments that could provider exposure to talented young players is another whilest the use of overage players in official juvenile competitions was as also another problem which Mr. Kofi Bawuah felt all need to tackled effectively.

The Executive Officer has revealed that Mylik Sports Limited will work in close collaboration with the National Sports Council, the Ghana Football Association and the Ghana Education Service to streamline youth football in Ghana.

In this direction a programme is being put together to explore the possibility of instituting a football league solely for youth footballers in second-cycle educational institutions and football academies during the football season. The implementation of these laudable plans aimed at injecting some sanity into the development of youth football will benefit the nation.

The Mylik Classic Under –19 Football Tournament is a prelude to the Community Sports Project (CSP). It has a eight-team tournament with an international element. It will involve the Under-19 Teams from Ghana. These include Accra Hearts of Oak, Liberty Academy, F.C Midjiland, and the British Council Community Sports Initiative team, all from Accra, Asante Kotoko, Corners Babies and Feyenoord Academy from Gomoah-Fetteh.

The eight teams will be pooled into two groups, A and B of four teams each. The Four teams in each group will first engage each other on a round-robin basis. The two best-placed teams from the group stage will qualify to advance to the semi-finals stage where the winner of Group A will engage the second placed team in Group B and vice versa. The respective semi-final winners will meet in the finals to determine the tournament winner. A giant trophy will be awarded to the wining team together with medals.

The Mylik Classic Under-19 Tournament appeal to potential sponsors to assist Mylik Sports Limited to stage this tournament, which comes on from November 20th – 30th, 2002 at the Accra Sports Stadium.