KSAFA president Rudolph Speid receives the sponsorship cheque from Western Union's marketing manager, Sandra Forbes, at the competition's launch in New Kingston yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

TITLE SPONSOR Western Union has committed its support to the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association's (KSAFA) Jackie Bell Knockout competition for a fifth consecutive year, pumping $2 million into this year's tournament.

In addition to the contribution from Western Union, the event, which kicks off tomorrow, will be broadcast (delayed) on the TVJ sports network at least once per week.

Involvement

"We all know that KSAFA is one of the best run associations in the country and perhaps the region, one of the things that we have targeted is launching as a brand," Rudolph Speid, president of KSAFA, said at the competition's launch yesterday. "The KSAFA Jackie Bell KO is known as one of the most exciting competitions in the country because recently you have had quite a few Major League and Super League teams, humbling more fancied Premier League competition."

The president also went on to list a number of present national players that have taken part in the Jackie Bell competitions and expressed the wish that it would continue to facilitate such development.

Sandra Forbes, marketing manager of Western Union, expressed her company's satisfaction at its continued involvement in the competition.

"The past four years have been a tremendous success for us and we are pleased to continue our association with the competition," Forbes said. "We are glad to able to continue giving players an opportunity to showcase their talent,"

This year's winners will walk away with $350,000, while $200,000 will go to the runners-up, $100,000 to third and $50,000 to the fourth-place team.

In addition, each team will get $5,000 for taking part in the competition. Fourteen teams are also expected to receive match jerseys.

Featured games

The Jackie Bell competition is contested by corporate area teams from the Syd Bartlett, Major, Super and Premier League competitions.

Harbour View are champions, but they and the other Premier League teams will not enter the competition until the second round.

The feature game of this week's competition will be August Town versus Santos at the UWI Bowl.

In other games, Whitfield Town play Woodford at STATHS, Stony Hill host Shortwood and UTech will host New Kingston at UTech.