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Time to wheel and come again
Western Bureau
As many of us here in western Jamaica feared, Seba United failed in their bid to beat Arnett Gardens in their final round National Premier League (NPL) fixture last Sunday and were relegated from the competition, leaving St James without a team in the NPL for the first time.
This most painful scenario has left football fans in Montego Bay, especially the die-hearted supporters of Seba United, in the type of daze I have not seen since the day former Reggae Boy Stephen 'Shorty' Malcolm was killed in a car crash and the entire city went into spontaneous mourning.
As a parish with a proud tradition in national football, having produced three former national champions in Seba United, Wadadah FC and Violet Kickers, and having grown accustomed to having a steady diet of NPL football, come August, when the 2008-09 season starts, life in Montego Bay will definitely not be the same.
To say the signs were on the horizon for a long time would be an understatement because instead of replenishing their stock by introducing young promising players, for the most part; the western teams have been guilty of seriously weakening their own product by constantly regurgitating the same old tired faces.
What makes Seba's relegation so much more troublesome is the fact that, in terms of programmes and infrastructure, they are far superior to all the other teams in west. If they can't hold down a place in the NPL, it is difficult to see any other team doing it despite the fact that Reno and Village United survived this year.
While Seba's predicament points to a general flaw in the structure of our football at the club level here in the west, it should also be seen as an indictment on the general state of football at all levels. Except for Trelawny, where there is a strong emphasis on development, what we have in the region is a lot of sub-standard football.
It was, therefore, not surprising to me when JFF boss Captain Horace Burrell all but read the riot act to the region's administrators earlier this week when he addressed a function in Trelawny. While I recognise, by virtue of my own involvement in St James' football, that football administration is not an easy task, I still believe there is room for greater effort to improve the product.
As I have been saying in some of my recent columns, I think the time has come for us to re-structure western Jamaica's football in a serious way. We need to shift the emphasis from recreational to a semi-pro-fessional, if not professional structure. Competitions like the St James Junior League should be transformed from a refuge for Senior League and Division One discards into a serious develop-mental league.
The time has come to reduce the number of teams competing in Major League and Division One competitions in the various parishes to no more than ten teams. If that is done, we will be able to have a concentration of our better players in a smaller pool, which is more likely to produce better quality football and players that we are now getting from our current army of sub-standard teams.
Personally, I have no doubt that western Jamaica's football can be rescued. What I am worried about is whether or not our current crop of admin-istrators has the guts to take the hard decisions that are needed in putting an end to situation where we have 35 and 40-year old players involved in our domestic competitions at the expense of younger players.
As Captain Burrell stated in Trelawny, our administrators need to realise that it cannot be business as usual if the current downward spiral is to be halted. I do hope that they have got the message loud and clear, because those who are not prepared to step up to the plate need to step aside and make way for more committed leaders.
Western Bureau
As many of us here in western Jamaica feared, Seba United failed in their bid to beat Arnett Gardens in their final round National Premier League (NPL) fixture last Sunday and were relegated from the competition, leaving St James without a team in the NPL for the first time.
This most painful scenario has left football fans in Montego Bay, especially the die-hearted supporters of Seba United, in the type of daze I have not seen since the day former Reggae Boy Stephen 'Shorty' Malcolm was killed in a car crash and the entire city went into spontaneous mourning.
As a parish with a proud tradition in national football, having produced three former national champions in Seba United, Wadadah FC and Violet Kickers, and having grown accustomed to having a steady diet of NPL football, come August, when the 2008-09 season starts, life in Montego Bay will definitely not be the same.
To say the signs were on the horizon for a long time would be an understatement because instead of replenishing their stock by introducing young promising players, for the most part; the western teams have been guilty of seriously weakening their own product by constantly regurgitating the same old tired faces.
What makes Seba's relegation so much more troublesome is the fact that, in terms of programmes and infrastructure, they are far superior to all the other teams in west. If they can't hold down a place in the NPL, it is difficult to see any other team doing it despite the fact that Reno and Village United survived this year.
While Seba's predicament points to a general flaw in the structure of our football at the club level here in the west, it should also be seen as an indictment on the general state of football at all levels. Except for Trelawny, where there is a strong emphasis on development, what we have in the region is a lot of sub-standard football.
It was, therefore, not surprising to me when JFF boss Captain Horace Burrell all but read the riot act to the region's administrators earlier this week when he addressed a function in Trelawny. While I recognise, by virtue of my own involvement in St James' football, that football administration is not an easy task, I still believe there is room for greater effort to improve the product.
As I have been saying in some of my recent columns, I think the time has come for us to re-structure western Jamaica's football in a serious way. We need to shift the emphasis from recreational to a semi-pro-fessional, if not professional structure. Competitions like the St James Junior League should be transformed from a refuge for Senior League and Division One discards into a serious develop-mental league.
The time has come to reduce the number of teams competing in Major League and Division One competitions in the various parishes to no more than ten teams. If that is done, we will be able to have a concentration of our better players in a smaller pool, which is more likely to produce better quality football and players that we are now getting from our current army of sub-standard teams.
Personally, I have no doubt that western Jamaica's football can be rescued. What I am worried about is whether or not our current crop of admin-istrators has the guts to take the hard decisions that are needed in putting an end to situation where we have 35 and 40-year old players involved in our domestic competitions at the expense of younger players.
As Captain Burrell stated in Trelawny, our administrators need to realise that it cannot be business as usual if the current downward spiral is to be halted. I do hope that they have got the message loud and clear, because those who are not prepared to step up to the plate need to step aside and make way for more committed leaders.
