Elite Cup aimed at youth development

Eric Rademakers, organiser of the KFC Elite Cup, said the competition’s expansion is targeted at strengthening Jamaica’s youth development by ensuring players are consistently playing in a competitive environment against quality opposition.

The KFC Elite Cup has grown to become a staple in Jamaica’s youth football since its inception in 2025.

Born from Rademakers’ desire of creating a competitive youth league, the competition saw several of Jamaica’s top clubs fielding U18 teams to compete on a weekly basis.

With the competition to return in 2027, the Elite Cup will expand from one league into three leagues; two U18 divisions and a new U15 competition.

The U18 divisions will feature the U18 Elite Cup as its premier league, with a second division, the U18 Championship.

Clubs will move between the U18 Elite Cup and the U18 Championship through promotion and relegation.

In the case of the U15 division, teams will compete in a 8v8 format on a smaller field.

Speaking about the expansion, Rademakers explained it was aimed to address the issues the organisers have identified in Jamaica’s youth development.

“A lot of it comes from the gap that we can identity in youth football in Jamaica. We’d like to focus a little bit more on the high-level players; the more serious players, so to say,” Rademakers explained.

SCHOOLBOY FOOTBALL

Rademakers said while schoolboy football remains the most popular youth football competition on the island, it falls short as a suitable platform for football development.

He said schoolboy football competition fosters an open environment focused on inclusion rather than a competitive environment geared towards development.

In contrast, the Elite Cup hopes to address these issues by ensuring Jamaica’s top youth players are developed in a space where they are playing against other top players.

“Schoolboy football is really that avenue to allow everybody to play who wants to join,” Rademakers explained.

“But, when you want to really shape the best players in the country, you can’t have that in a format that has everybody involved.”

He continued, “When you want to shape diamonds with diamonds, you don’t want to have a 15-year-old that’s just beginning football playing against an 18-year-old that’s playing in the U20 World Cup qualifiers. That was really kind of the main thought process behind everything.”

He also explained that the idea of promotion and relegation between the leagues is to further foster an environment of competition and meritocracy.

With promotion and relegation, it gives teams in the second division a strong motivation to succeed while ensuring teams in the top division remain competitive, even if they miss out on the title.

“We wanted to make it an actual competitive league so, if someone else wants to pick up the football and perform amazing, then they should be able to get promoted.”

Rademakers said the format will see the last place team in the Elite Cup relegated to the Championship at the end of the season, while the winners of the Championship will be promoted to the Elite Cup.

Portmore United are the reigning champions of the Elite Cup while Mount Pleasant Football Academy won the inaugural title in 2025.

gregory.bryce@gleanerjm.com