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Taken from www.jamaicaobserver.com
JFF/PLCA joint venture Premier League?
By Earl Bailey
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The future looks bright for the Jamaica's National Premier League. Headway is also being made in the vexed question of ownership of the league and its components, according to a report on the website JamaicaWin.com.
"The three English experts who visited the island recently have fleshed out a plan which would see a joint venture between the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and the Clubs," the web site's source claimed in an exclusive interview.
"Both the JFF and the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) are in possession of this document and we should begin negotiations shortly. Chances are we may not be able to reach an agreement before the start of the competition in late August, but we have a platform that should see us finalising an agreement sometime in the new season," the source said.
It was announced at a joint press briefing between the PLCA and the JFF that they were not able to reach an agreement as to which direction the competition should take, hence the involvement of the English experts to advise on that issue, among others.
The PLCA was formed one year ago to assist with the garnering of funds for the National Premier League and to ensure that the participating clubs are better funded.
Chairman of the PLCA, Edward Seaga, while acknowledging the JFF's role as head of local football, told journalists that the league has its own role to play. "The role of the league is to take some of the pressure off the national body, so they can turn their attention and focus into running the competition at the international level," said Seaga.
Meanwhile, Captain Horace Burrell, president of the JFF, said: "While most of our players ply their trade abroad we must develop professional local footballers. The JFF is all for that and there is no rift between us and the PLCA."
Midway last season the PLCA lost title sponsor Cash Plus, which went into receivership. Now they are looking to possibly bigger and better things. "We are very excited at the prospects," said the source. "We have made proposals with three sponsors. We should hear by next week and we will be able to make a choice."
He said that all three are likely to be multi-year deals. The source went on to say that all the negotiations must be concluded by the end of the month so that the selected partner would have one month to put its advertising and promotions machinery in place.
The source also added that the PLCA has tied up a very good sponsorships deal with Nike to supply balls for the competition, and they are now awaiting final responses from two bidders to supply gear to at least 10 teams in the National Premier League. "A final decision will be made as soon as we have both responses in hand."
The Premier League is expected to get underway by the end of August.
Editor's Note: Earl Bailey is the editor of JamaicaWin.com.
JFF/PLCA joint venture Premier League?
By Earl Bailey
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The future looks bright for the Jamaica's National Premier League. Headway is also being made in the vexed question of ownership of the league and its components, according to a report on the website JamaicaWin.com.
"The three English experts who visited the island recently have fleshed out a plan which would see a joint venture between the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and the Clubs," the web site's source claimed in an exclusive interview.
"Both the JFF and the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) are in possession of this document and we should begin negotiations shortly. Chances are we may not be able to reach an agreement before the start of the competition in late August, but we have a platform that should see us finalising an agreement sometime in the new season," the source said.
It was announced at a joint press briefing between the PLCA and the JFF that they were not able to reach an agreement as to which direction the competition should take, hence the involvement of the English experts to advise on that issue, among others.
The PLCA was formed one year ago to assist with the garnering of funds for the National Premier League and to ensure that the participating clubs are better funded.
Chairman of the PLCA, Edward Seaga, while acknowledging the JFF's role as head of local football, told journalists that the league has its own role to play. "The role of the league is to take some of the pressure off the national body, so they can turn their attention and focus into running the competition at the international level," said Seaga.
Meanwhile, Captain Horace Burrell, president of the JFF, said: "While most of our players ply their trade abroad we must develop professional local footballers. The JFF is all for that and there is no rift between us and the PLCA."
Midway last season the PLCA lost title sponsor Cash Plus, which went into receivership. Now they are looking to possibly bigger and better things. "We are very excited at the prospects," said the source. "We have made proposals with three sponsors. We should hear by next week and we will be able to make a choice."
He said that all three are likely to be multi-year deals. The source went on to say that all the negotiations must be concluded by the end of the month so that the selected partner would have one month to put its advertising and promotions machinery in place.
The source also added that the PLCA has tied up a very good sponsorships deal with Nike to supply balls for the competition, and they are now awaiting final responses from two bidders to supply gear to at least 10 teams in the National Premier League. "A final decision will be made as soon as we have both responses in hand."
The Premier League is expected to get underway by the end of August.
Editor's Note: Earl Bailey is the editor of JamaicaWin.com.