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Stop threatening us, Captain
SPORTING EDGEPaul Reid
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It is unfortunate that Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has to resort to thinly veiled threats in his efforts to marshal support for the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game between Jamaica and the Bahamas at the Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium (TMPS) next month.
At a press conference held at Starfish Resort near Falmouth on Tuesday, Captain said that unless there was a full house which would return a profit to help boost the JFF's coffers, we can kiss any more games there goodbye.
While the Captain might have expertise in many areas, obviously marketing is not one of his strong suits.
If I might be 'bumptious' enough to offer some advice, Captain might have been better served if he had played up the beauty of the new facility, the historic aspect of a World Cup qualifier being played in Trelawny and the fact that we might even have new Reggae Boyz showing off their skills.
There was also the aspect that the President of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce Dennis Seivwright mentioned that fans in central Jamaica,like Manchester, would have easier access to the game.
Any of these aspects would have gone down better than the threats that we heard coming from the former army man.
This is not the first time we in western Jamaica have been given this type of ultimatum, and still fresh in my mind is a decision taken by Captain Burrell when he saw a less-than-jam-packed Jarrett Park for a game between Jamaica and Panama in May 2003. An obviously disappointed Burrell vowed the facility would not get any more internationals, as obviously the fans here in the west did not appreciate what was being done for them.
This notwithstanding the fact that one of the few overseas-based players on the Reggae Boyz team was Darren Moore, and the strikers made available to then National Technical Director Sebastiao Lazaroni, in his first assignment were Oneil 'Chippy' McDonald, Fabian Taylor, Jermaine Johnson and Kevin Lamey.
It is rather insensitive for the JFF boss to be making these pronouncements in light of the economic realities we are now facing when people have to be making tough choices in the supermarket aisles these days, and helping the JFF maintain their billion-dollar budget is not in the top 10 on their list of priorities.
The fact is the JFF had very little choice in bringing the game to Trelawny, as it is very unlikely that the second game at the stadium would have even drawn enough to fill the grandstand.
While not counting the chickens before they are hatched and despite our less-than-stellar showing in the recent FIFA polls, this contest should be over in the first half of the first game.
Jamaica should win going away and thus the pull for game two would have lessened, therefore the JFF did well in getting the game to be scheduled outside of Kingston, giving other fans the opportunity to see their football heroes live.
In spite of everything, though, I am hoping for a large turnout for the first-ever international football game in Trelawny come June 18 as we get the World Cup campaign on the road.
SPORTING EDGEPaul Reid
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It is unfortunate that Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has to resort to thinly veiled threats in his efforts to marshal support for the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game between Jamaica and the Bahamas at the Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium (TMPS) next month.
At a press conference held at Starfish Resort near Falmouth on Tuesday, Captain said that unless there was a full house which would return a profit to help boost the JFF's coffers, we can kiss any more games there goodbye.
While the Captain might have expertise in many areas, obviously marketing is not one of his strong suits.
If I might be 'bumptious' enough to offer some advice, Captain might have been better served if he had played up the beauty of the new facility, the historic aspect of a World Cup qualifier being played in Trelawny and the fact that we might even have new Reggae Boyz showing off their skills.
There was also the aspect that the President of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce Dennis Seivwright mentioned that fans in central Jamaica,like Manchester, would have easier access to the game.
Any of these aspects would have gone down better than the threats that we heard coming from the former army man.
This is not the first time we in western Jamaica have been given this type of ultimatum, and still fresh in my mind is a decision taken by Captain Burrell when he saw a less-than-jam-packed Jarrett Park for a game between Jamaica and Panama in May 2003. An obviously disappointed Burrell vowed the facility would not get any more internationals, as obviously the fans here in the west did not appreciate what was being done for them.
This notwithstanding the fact that one of the few overseas-based players on the Reggae Boyz team was Darren Moore, and the strikers made available to then National Technical Director Sebastiao Lazaroni, in his first assignment were Oneil 'Chippy' McDonald, Fabian Taylor, Jermaine Johnson and Kevin Lamey.
It is rather insensitive for the JFF boss to be making these pronouncements in light of the economic realities we are now facing when people have to be making tough choices in the supermarket aisles these days, and helping the JFF maintain their billion-dollar budget is not in the top 10 on their list of priorities.
The fact is the JFF had very little choice in bringing the game to Trelawny, as it is very unlikely that the second game at the stadium would have even drawn enough to fill the grandstand.
While not counting the chickens before they are hatched and despite our less-than-stellar showing in the recent FIFA polls, this contest should be over in the first half of the first game.
Jamaica should win going away and thus the pull for game two would have lessened, therefore the JFF did well in getting the game to be scheduled outside of Kingston, giving other fans the opportunity to see their football heroes live.
In spite of everything, though, I am hoping for a large turnout for the first-ever international football game in Trelawny come June 18 as we get the World Cup campaign on the road.
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