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‘It’s just a practice activity’ Seeded Manning, daCosta Cup teams to clash on ‘Super Saturday’
August 27, 2026
Seeded teams in the Corporate Area/St Catherine Manning Cup and the rural daCosta Cup will not be sitting idle during the opening round of their respective competitions, even though they are not part of the official match schedule.
Instead, 30 teams across both competitions will compete at different venues in what has been labelled ‘Super Saturday’.
The seeding system is new to the senior football championships run by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), which held its official launch for this year’s high school boys’ competitions late Wednesday evening.
In previous years, all schools involved in the league-style Manning and daCosta Cup competitions would kick off with zonal group play in the very first round.
More competitive and credible
Ewan Scott, ISSA’s competitions officer, believes the changes to the format and structure of the 2026 schoolboy football season will make the competitions more competitive and credible.
“To create some activity, we have a weekend dubbed Super Saturday, on February 12, where the 30 teams will get a chance to play across all five venues,” he said.
“It will be six teams at each venue - three daCosta Cup and three Manning Cup. Each team will get a chance to play two matches, and it will be the daCosta Cup teams against Manning Cup teams.
“It is just a practice activity for the teams,” Scott explained. “No champions will be crowned. It is not a matter of crowning champions. It is just to provide official activity for them, although there will be sectional prizes like best goal.”
Changes to KO competitions
Another major alteration to ISSA’s format this year applies to its knockout competitions; the Walker Cup, played among Corporate Area and some St Catherine high schools, and the Ben Francis Cup, contested by rural teams.
In recent years, the Walker Cup and accost Cup were contested by the eight losing teams from the Round of 16 in the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions. For this reason, both competitions were referred to as ‘The Losers’ Cup’.
“For the Ben Francis, 64 teams will participate in the tournament. For the Walker Cup, it will be 32 teams. It will be a straight knockout. That will not change, but more teams will get a chance to compete,” Scott related.
“So we are bringing about the days when teams could compete for all available trophies.”
No objections
He said there were no objections to the changes in format for both competitions.
“The teams are glad for it, and also for the change to the competitions. It brings more credibility and prestige,” he stated. “In recent years, they have talked about The Losers Cup. It is when teams drop out at a certain stage; they go into these competitions.
“Now we can put some Davids against Goliaths and give some of the teams that wouldn’t have had a chance to start, and make the chips fall where they may.
“Definitely. It will erase the Losers Cup label because now everybody starts on the same footing. Now it is a real knockout with the best of everyone,” said Scott.
