Jamaica Football Federation president, Captain Horace Burrell (left), looks on as Carlo Redwood (second left), vice-president marketing, LIME, presents the jubilant champion team Gulf Strikers of St Thomas with their prizes for winning the LIME Street Football Challenge final in Half-Way Tree square last Friday. Gulf Strikers beat Hanover team Smokers 3-1 in the final. - Winston Sill

Captain Burrell was in his element on Friday in Half-Way Tree square.

As confetti drifted down to earth, Capt Burrell may well have been celebrating his unopposed return to the post of Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president for another four years, but he was actually celebrating with St Thomas who had just won the inaugural LIME Street Football competition. They had just collected their trophies after defeating Hanover 3-1 and won a $1,000,000 for their efforts.

excited spectators

An estimated 2,000 persons had crammed into the space to witness the occasion and the JFF boss was looking on like a cat that had just snared the elusive canary. "Football is the greatest sport on earth. Seeing what it has done today, Labour Day, a public holiday. People could have gone to the beach, yet they came here. Looking at the faces of the spectators they were all looking excited, enthused, satisfied. I believe this type of football is going to one day mushroom into a world-class event," he said. "When I go to Brazil (for the FIFA World Cup) one of the things I will speak to the FIFA president about is this type of football. Because any type of organised football that is being played, FIFA has an interest in it. So this thing that started in Jamaica might become a world-class event."

endorsement

The JFF endorsement has given the organisers to do a proper evaluation that will enable them to make the competition even better next year and LIME's vice-president of marketing, Carlo Redwood, is already one step ahead.

"It certainly is a competition that we will have difficulty walking away from. We will try to make it better, try to build it and make it better than it was this year," he said.

Redwood said everything went a little better than expected for the inaugural tournament that had such a rousing finish in the heart of the capital.

"It was a huge success," he exclaimed. "The crowd support and the community connection that we wanted, we got more than we could have possibly imagined."