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Posted - Nov 26 2003 : 05:16:17 AM
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A visit to the past, present and future
Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 7:06:26 PM
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A visit to the past, present and future
(FIFA.com) 21 Nov 2003
FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter breaks ground in Jamaica
FIFA
Asserting that “the philosophy of football is to offer hope”, on 16 November 2003 FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter performed a symbolic groundbreaking act at the future site of the Goal project to be constructed by FIFA in the city of Portmore, Jamaica. The project, which was approved at the October 2003 Goal Bureau approval session in Doha (Qatar), is the first phase of the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) ambitious long-term plan to build its National Football Academy and Training Centre. Two training fields and a dormitory for the JFF will be constructed on land donated by the Jamaican government through its Urban Development Corporation. Ultimately, the Centre will also include an office complex housing the JFF’s technical directorate and conference rooms, as well as a mini-stadium for competitive matches.
Jamaica – the Isle of Springs, motherland of Reggae legend Bob Marley and home to football’s Reggae Boyz
In the face of many years of economic decline, civil unrest and serious crime, the Jamaican population today defiantly proclaims the exploits of its national heroes in various fields of endeavour. Among these are to counted the Reggae Boyz, who brought such honour to their country by becoming only the second team from the Caribbean to qualify for a FIFA World Cup™ France 98 – where they won their final match against Japan.
Despite pressing national problems, since 1998 Jamaican age group national selections have built on the accomplishment of the senior Reggae Boyz by qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Championship New Zealand 99 and the FIFA World Youth Championship Argentina 2001 – a remarkable feat for a country of only 2.5 millions souls. This success is the product of determined developmental work being steadily conducted by the JFF under the leadership of President Horace Burrell.
Today, not only the national selections, but domestic football – in the national premier League, the schools and among women – is enjoying unprecedented popularity. Not counted among their confederation’s best at the end of the 1980s, today the JFF is a member of the CONCACAF elite.
President Blatter began the day as the guest of honour at the JFF’s Awards Ceremony in Kingston, which honoured players, coaches, referees and administrators who have contributed to the evolution of the Jamaican game since the 1950s. The glittering audience at this ceremony comprised a broad array of political, business and sporting dignitaries, including FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President, Jack Warner, and the Jamaica Minister of Sports, Portia Simpson-Miller, in the capacity of Acting Prime Minister. Speaking as a citizen of the Caribbean, Vice-President Warner, commented on the singularity of the event given the Islands’ penchant for honouring the deserving usually after death and praised the JFF for its initiative.
Following the awards ceremony and the groundbreaking at Portmore – a burgeoning urban area of some 400,000 residents, the recent recipient of city status and home of Jamaican club champions Portmore United – President Blatter and the entire party attended a “double-header” at the national stadium, where the home side defeated Guatemala 2-0 in a first-leg qualifying match for the Olympic Football Tournament Athens 2004, while the senior Reggae Boyz cruised past El Salvador 3-0 in a friendly encounter. The junior Reggae Boyz hope to become the next Jamaican national team to qualify for a FIFA finals.
In one of his first comments on this historic day, President Blatter previewed and crystallised the day’s activities by declaring that the participants would visit the past (the award ceremony), the present (the matches at the national stadium) and the future (the site of the Goal project). While the Goal project will assist in the immediate transformation of the Portmore landscape, more importantly it will also symbolise the continuity between the inheritance of the past and the promise of the future for Jamaican Football.
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