bahrainthismonth.com | OCTOBER 2026 SPORTS 67 A Bigger Football Stage With a record season set to begin this month, the Junior Premier League (JPL) is opening more opportunities for Bahrain’s young footballers and their families. With around 3,000 players aged five to 17 expected to take part across seven venues in Saar, Zallaq and Riffa, the popular youth football competition promises to be bigger than ever. In fact, over 26 matchdays, roughly 1,300 matches will be played before the season ends on May 31. Andrew Collins, the JPL’s Director of Football GCC, has watched the competition grow from its beginnings as the Bahrain Youth Development League in 2016. It adopted the JPL name and structure through a partnership with the league in England in 2022. Now, he says, 230 teams have registered their interest, compared with 120 teams and around 2,000 players last season. Mr. Collins, who has been in the Kingdom for 16 years and involved in youth football for most of that time, says: “Since then my job has been to build it into a proper week-in, week-out competition: fixtures, tables, qualified referees, registered players, and now the collaboration with the Bahrain Football Association that makes the JPL the official youth league in the Kingdom.” A Place to Grow The competition begins with three-a-side football for its youngest players and progresses through different formats to 11-a-side matches. Teams are organised by birth year, allowing friends and teammates to develop together as they move through the age groups. Girls can play in the Warriors leagues, while older players have a route into adult competition through the BAFL Men’s Open and Open Age Warriors. This season also brings a new online system that records players, coaches and teams in one place. For Mr. Collins, that history will help academies and families follow a child’s progress over successive seasons. Under the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) collaboration, he says the JPL is the sole league provider for players born in 2013 or later. The league also has a role in identifying players for the AKA academy and national age group programmes, with any approach involving the league, academy and parents. Mr. Collins says: “Our job is to build the stage they play on, week after week, so that those pathways have somewhere to happen.” Beyond Bahrain That stage also extends across the Gulf. The JPL GCC Cup will take teams to Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with Bahrain also hosting a round in November. Last season, more than 80 teams travelled to the Kingdom for the Bahrain round. Furthermore, the BFA will host both the GCC Cup and the girls’ Warriors GCC Cup here again this season. Mr. Collins says: “For young players, these tournaments offer new opponents and a taste of travelling with a team. Kids make friends from across the Gulf and parents get to know each other. “The ceiling for youth football in Bahrain and the Gulf is huge. What I want is simple: every season better than the last. More teams, more girls playing, more clubs in the second tier, more Bahraini players coming through to the national age groups, and a league that families look forward to every Saturday. If we keep doing that each year, the rest takes care of itself.” For more information and the latest updates throughout the season: @jpl.bahrain
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