{"id":359318,"date":"2026-04-09T09:13:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=359318"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:13:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:13:34","slug":"easter-grassroots-youth-football-festival-kicks-off-in-portsmouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/easter-grassroots-youth-football-festival-kicks-off-in-portsmouth\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival kicks off in Portsmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-359321\" src=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/grassroot-football-tournament-2-642x803.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Portsmouth Football Academy, working together with Bombers Football Club and Sport Aid Dominica, is organizing its first Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival on Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>According to a Bombers Football Club release, the event will take place at Benjamin Park in Portsmouth and is scheduled to run from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.<\/p>\n<p>This one-day festival will highlight up-and-coming football players in the Under-11 and Under-13 categories. Participating teams include the Portsmouth Football Academy, the National Football Academy, the Newtown Juvenile Football Academy, and a visiting side, Club Sport Guadeloupe. The program is expected to present an energetic showcase of youth football, with an emphasis on developing skills, encouraging teamwork, and promoting sportsmanship.<\/p>\n<p>The event is being held with the backing of Honorable Fenella Wenham Shepherd, alongside support from key partners such as the Dominica Football Association, DASPA (Dominica Air and Seaport Authority), and Trois Pitons Water. Their involvement continues to contribute to the growth of youth-focused and community-based sports initiatives, said the release.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the matches themselves, the festival is part of a wider effort to promote sports tourism, with the goal of establishing Portsmouth and Dominica as an emerging center for youth football development and regional sporting collaboration. The inclusion of teams from the region, such as Guadeloupe, aims to support the country\u2019s positioning as a destination for organized youth sporting events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis festival is about more than football\u2014it is about creating opportunities, building discipline, and opening pathways for our young players,\u201d organizers noted. \u201cIt is also a step toward developing sports tourism in the north of the island.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They have also indicated their intention to make it an annual event. Future plans include increasing participation by inviting more local academies as well as regional and international teams.<\/p>\n<p>Community members are invited to attend and show their support for the young athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portsmouth Football Academy, working together with Bombers Football Club and Sport Aid Dominica, is organizing its first Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival on Thursday, April 9, 2026. According to a Bombers Football Club release, the event will take place&#8230;","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":359321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival kicks off in Portsmouth - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/easter-grassroots-youth-football-festival-kicks-off-in-portsmouth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival kicks off in Portsmouth - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Portsmouth Football Academy, working together with Bombers Football Club and Sport Aid Dominica, is organizing its first Easter Grassroots Youth Football Festival on Thursday, April 9, 2026. 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