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Academy delegation to travel to Brazil, T&T
LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
A delegation from the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) is scheduled to visit two football academies in the coming weeks to have a clearer vision of what the local academy will look like.
The delegation will visit the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil and the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in Trinidad and Tobago.
"The university is trying to benchmark itself towards the best international standards of football academies, so they will visit several centres of excellence," said Howard McIntosh, chairman of the JFF technical committee.
McIntosh was a member of the JFF team that visited the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in March while the national senior male and female teams held training camps in Brazil. McIntosh and general secretary, Horace Reid, both concurred that the facility in Brazil, which is run by Serie A club Atletico Paranaense, is one of the best in the world.
"Anything and everything that you need to have at a training centre exist at this facility at first- class level. One would have to see, to get a true impression of what I am speaking to," Reid was quoted as saying in the March 29 issue a local newpaper.
McIntosh added that a preliminary meeting between the UWI projects officer, Devon Smith, and the manager of the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre took place on June 18.
The JFF and UWI on Thursday unveiled plans for the football academy, which will be constructed around existing facilities at the university and will be known as the Mona Bowl for Sporting Excellence. The entire facility will cover 40 acres and construction is expected to cost around US$14.5 million and last two and a half years. The academy will cost the JFF US$2.5 while the remaining expenses will be covered by UWI.
The Government has pledged $150 million to the project. For its start-up cash, the JFF is expecting a second Goal Project grant of US$400,000 from FIFA as well as money from the sale of lands in Malvern, St Elizabeth, which was earmarked for the academy four years ago by the previous JFF administration.
By the end of the project, the Mona Bowl for Sporting Excellence should boast an international-rated sports complex with a football field, race track and seating for 8,000. The football academy, which will include two training fields, dorms for 54 persons, lecture theatre, kitchen and laundry room and the Caribbean Institute of Sports Medicine, which will provide rehabilitation for the athletes. Also included will be two other football fields, a cricket oval, pool, a gymnasium for indoor sports, gyms, tennis courts, a walking trail and sand surfaces for beach volleyball and football.
LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
A delegation from the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) is scheduled to visit two football academies in the coming weeks to have a clearer vision of what the local academy will look like.
The delegation will visit the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil and the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in Trinidad and Tobago.
"The university is trying to benchmark itself towards the best international standards of football academies, so they will visit several centres of excellence," said Howard McIntosh, chairman of the JFF technical committee.
McIntosh was a member of the JFF team that visited the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in March while the national senior male and female teams held training camps in Brazil. McIntosh and general secretary, Horace Reid, both concurred that the facility in Brazil, which is run by Serie A club Atletico Paranaense, is one of the best in the world.
"Anything and everything that you need to have at a training centre exist at this facility at first- class level. One would have to see, to get a true impression of what I am speaking to," Reid was quoted as saying in the March 29 issue a local newpaper.
McIntosh added that a preliminary meeting between the UWI projects officer, Devon Smith, and the manager of the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre took place on June 18.
The JFF and UWI on Thursday unveiled plans for the football academy, which will be constructed around existing facilities at the university and will be known as the Mona Bowl for Sporting Excellence. The entire facility will cover 40 acres and construction is expected to cost around US$14.5 million and last two and a half years. The academy will cost the JFF US$2.5 while the remaining expenses will be covered by UWI.
The Government has pledged $150 million to the project. For its start-up cash, the JFF is expecting a second Goal Project grant of US$400,000 from FIFA as well as money from the sale of lands in Malvern, St Elizabeth, which was earmarked for the academy four years ago by the previous JFF administration.
By the end of the project, the Mona Bowl for Sporting Excellence should boast an international-rated sports complex with a football field, race track and seating for 8,000. The football academy, which will include two training fields, dorms for 54 persons, lecture theatre, kitchen and laundry room and the Caribbean Institute of Sports Medicine, which will provide rehabilitation for the athletes. Also included will be two other football fields, a cricket oval, pool, a gymnasium for indoor sports, gyms, tennis courts, a walking trail and sand surfaces for beach volleyball and football.
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