The nationwide registration of colt players by the National Juvenile and Youth Committee (NJYC), which began on March 1, is expected to end on March 30, 2004.

According to the programme lined up for the year, any club registered with a district juvenile association and desirous of participating in the national programme for this year shall register players in both the Under-14 and Under-17 divisions.

The programme, however, cautions that any club which registers in only one division shall not be recognised by the national association.It, however, explains that associations organising the Under-12 division only are exempted from this rule.

Giving guidelines and procedures for the registration of players, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of NJYC, Mr Evans Amenumey, said each club shall register a minimum of 20 players and a maximum of 35.

He explained that any Under-17 player born in or before 1986 is disqualified from participating in the 2004 NJYC, while those born in or before 1989 are also disqualified from the Under-14 division.

?Such players are to gain automatic qualification to the Under-17 division, while players born in or before 1991 are disqualified to play in the Under-12 division. They will be promoted to the Under-14 division,? he explained.

Touching on the weight of the players, Mr Amenumey said players in the Under-12 division are to weigh not more than 35 kilogrammes, while those in Under-14 are expected to weigh 45 kilogrammes or below. Under-17 players are to weigh not more than 55 kilogrammes.

He said registration officers have been advised to conduct promotion exercises first, so as to know the number of vacancies left for new players in each team. Each region, he said, is expected to decide on the date it can start with the registration exercise, ?but it should be within the specified time period?.

The chairman hinted that the 2004 Nestle-sponsored national competition scheduled for January 2005 would take place in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.All regions will be required to submit their regional champions to the national association four weeks to the date of the national competition, with the exception of the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, which are expected to send two clubs each. All other regions are to be represented by a club, he added.