| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Karl |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 10:23:07 PM
Ensure we benefit from the next football World Cup
Saturday, October 14, 2006
News that the much-criticised football administration of Mr Crenston Boxhill is close to signing a deal with the Serbian-born naturalised Mexican Mr Bora Milutinovic as coach of Jamaica's Reggae Boyz will no doubt serve as a fillip for the sport locally.
Of course, it couldn't have come at a better time for the Boxhill administration, following Jamaica's recent disastrous failure to get past the preliminary round of the Digicel Caribbean Cup - a tournament they had easily won the previous year.
And with the JFF voting congress now just over a year away and former football boss Captain Horace Burrell indicating he wants his old job back, Mr Boxhill is rapidly running out of time to recover lost support.
International football coaches don't come cheap, so if Mr Boxhill is able to raise the many millions of dollars annually that will be required to pay coach and staff, that by itself would represent a major coup.
As is always the case in sport, and especially football, the Jamaican Government will have to bear a significant portion of the cost. And we can't ignore the fact that this is a tricky time for the beleaguered Government of Mrs Portia Simpson Miller to be doling out large sums. That, given the ongoing fall-out from the Trafigura affair with a general election due within months.
For there are those who will insist that even if, as is likely to be the case, the bulk of the money comes from lotto-sourced CHASE funds, no Jamaican government should be spending the kind of money on football that was required for example, to get the Reggae Boyz to the 1998 World Cup in France. And those critics will point to the urgent needs of the health and education sectors, et al that are not now being properly addressed.
But this newspaper recalls the positives that flowed from the success of the Reggae Boyz in the late 90s, and for that reason we are fully supportive of the drive for Jamaica to be at the party come the next FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
It's with a sense of gladness that we remember the national pride and sense of upliftment following the Reggae Boyz' qualification in late 1997, and the pleasure that surrounded the 2-1 victory over Japan in France the following year. It's said that in the immediate aftermath of qualification, criminal activity plummeted - such was the sense of oneness and achievement.
And while there are probably no supporting figures, we are inclined to suspect that the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and other agencies such as the investment promoter JAMPRO are still enjoying the positive spin-offs of World Cup qualification nine years ago.
But having said all that, there can be no doubt that at a developmental level, Jamaica's football did not benefit nearly enough from World Cup qualification. Rather than seek to provide a football facility of world-class standard for example, the JFF, then led by Captain Burrell, opted to use World Cup earnings for an elaborate headquarters building in expensive New Kingston.
It's shameful that the badly needed football academy is only now being built and that for the most part our football surfaces and venues remain woefully inadequate. It's also disgraceful that a proper professional league is still to be developed and that so many of our talented youngsters are being guided by people who are coaches in name only - well-meaning though they may be.
It's important that as we embark yet again on a programme to qualify for football's World Cup, our football administrators plan carefully, and perhaps with the expert assistance of the new coach, ensure that there is something substantial to show for reaching the World Cup this time around.
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