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Dollars and sense
Saturday, February 23, 2008
If anyone had any lingering doubt that professional football is an expensive venture, they would have been divested of that view after the revelation by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) earlier this month that they had earned just over one-third of their minimum monthly operating cost of $30 million from Jamaica's friendly international against CONCACAF rivals Costa Rica on Ash Wednesday at the National Stadium.
According to the JFF, they had earned a profit of $12.2 million from the game, which cost them $17.8 million to stage. The net surplus, they said, included game sponsorship from brokerage house Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB).
"This will no doubt start the chipping away at our recently announced 2008/2010 budget of $1.3 billion and current liabilities, inherited from the previous administration, of $105 million," the JFF said in a news release.
But, as Mr Leighton McKnight, chairman of the JFF's finance committee, said, the money earned from the Ash Wednesday friendly "is a very small step in the right direction", given that the Federation's budget for the year is almost $400 million.
Getting to the World Cup football finals in South Africa in 2010 will not be cheap, and the JFF will, therefore, need a lot of help from sponsors on this campaign, as was the case when Jamaica made its historic qualification for the 1998 finals in France.
This need for heavy financial support should, therefore, suggest to the JFF that they must conduct their affairs with the utmost transparency and make financially prudent decisions going forward.
It is against this background that we question the wisdom of appointing local coaches - Messrs Lenworth Hyde, Donovan Duckie, Paul Young, Theodore Whitmore and Charles Edwards - in addition to four scouts: Mr Jackie Walters, Mr Leebert Halliman, Mr Vin Blaine and Mr Bradley Stewart, to the technical team that already has Brazilian technical director Mr Rene Simoes and three assistants.
It has been reported that Mr Simoes, the technical director who guided Jamaica to France in 1998, is being paid US$50,000 per month, while his three compatriots - Messrs Alfredo Montesso, Chico Santos and Alexandrio Montinerio - earn US$15,000 each per month.
Mr Young, we have been told, resigned his position as one of the coaches over what he said was a discrepancy in salary with those of the Brazilians. That, however, does not dilute the fact that a coaching staff of the size noted here would account for significant expense.
We are not here advocating the non-inclusion of Jamaicans on the coaching staff. For it is our belief that our coaches should be given every opportunity to equip themselves with the knowledge and expertise that will qualify any of them to take the lead role as head coach of the national football programme, and to do so successfully at the international level.
However, Jamaica is unlike other countries where football is actually big business and where strong economies help to sustain the game and its development programmes at high levels.
The JFF, therefore, needs to review its commitment to expenses, even as it tries to ensure that local coaches benefit fully from the expertise brought by Mr Simoes and his assistants.
For the ultimate aim of the JFF, we presume, is to have Jamaica qualifying for the World Cup finals every four years under the guidance of a Jamaican head coach.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
If anyone had any lingering doubt that professional football is an expensive venture, they would have been divested of that view after the revelation by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) earlier this month that they had earned just over one-third of their minimum monthly operating cost of $30 million from Jamaica's friendly international against CONCACAF rivals Costa Rica on Ash Wednesday at the National Stadium.
According to the JFF, they had earned a profit of $12.2 million from the game, which cost them $17.8 million to stage. The net surplus, they said, included game sponsorship from brokerage house Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB).
"This will no doubt start the chipping away at our recently announced 2008/2010 budget of $1.3 billion and current liabilities, inherited from the previous administration, of $105 million," the JFF said in a news release.
But, as Mr Leighton McKnight, chairman of the JFF's finance committee, said, the money earned from the Ash Wednesday friendly "is a very small step in the right direction", given that the Federation's budget for the year is almost $400 million.
Getting to the World Cup football finals in South Africa in 2010 will not be cheap, and the JFF will, therefore, need a lot of help from sponsors on this campaign, as was the case when Jamaica made its historic qualification for the 1998 finals in France.
This need for heavy financial support should, therefore, suggest to the JFF that they must conduct their affairs with the utmost transparency and make financially prudent decisions going forward.
It is against this background that we question the wisdom of appointing local coaches - Messrs Lenworth Hyde, Donovan Duckie, Paul Young, Theodore Whitmore and Charles Edwards - in addition to four scouts: Mr Jackie Walters, Mr Leebert Halliman, Mr Vin Blaine and Mr Bradley Stewart, to the technical team that already has Brazilian technical director Mr Rene Simoes and three assistants.
It has been reported that Mr Simoes, the technical director who guided Jamaica to France in 1998, is being paid US$50,000 per month, while his three compatriots - Messrs Alfredo Montesso, Chico Santos and Alexandrio Montinerio - earn US$15,000 each per month.
Mr Young, we have been told, resigned his position as one of the coaches over what he said was a discrepancy in salary with those of the Brazilians. That, however, does not dilute the fact that a coaching staff of the size noted here would account for significant expense.
We are not here advocating the non-inclusion of Jamaicans on the coaching staff. For it is our belief that our coaches should be given every opportunity to equip themselves with the knowledge and expertise that will qualify any of them to take the lead role as head coach of the national football programme, and to do so successfully at the international level.
However, Jamaica is unlike other countries where football is actually big business and where strong economies help to sustain the game and its development programmes at high levels.
The JFF, therefore, needs to review its commitment to expenses, even as it tries to ensure that local coaches benefit fully from the expertise brought by Mr Simoes and his assistants.
For the ultimate aim of the JFF, we presume, is to have Jamaica qualifying for the World Cup finals every four years under the guidance of a Jamaican head coach.
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