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It is no 'corner league'
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Dear Editor,
I read a story in the July 16, 2008 edition of your newspaper which made reference to a football league in New York with the description "corner league" attached to it and which went on to describe coach Rene Simoes' disappointment in the three players who play in the league and who refused to turn up for the one-week camp at the Grand Lido Braco.
A "corner league", as I know it, is:
1) One that's restricted to teams within a certain community, district or small town;
2) One which operates outside the ambit of its association or federation, which would have jurisdiction based on geographical location; and
3) One which is purely recreational with a few weeks of competition.
The Bronx New York International League (BNYISL) which these players and several other Jamaica NPL players participate in during the Jamaica off-season is far and above anything close to a corner league. First of all, the league facilitates 18 clubs not only from the Bronx, but from all over the New York Tri-State area, including from the city boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the suburban counties of Long Island and Westchester, and from the states of New Jersey and Connecticut.
Secondly, the league operates under the aegis of the New York State Soccer Association with only licensed state referees, including national referees (those who officiate in international and MLS games) permitted to officiate games.
In fact, there are clubs that are individually affiliated with the USSF which can take up the offer for qualification to the USSF-run US Open Cup (the USA's version of the famous FA Cup). The club of which I am an integral administrator, Kandia, last year alone, through its affiliation with the USSF, was able to host international teams like the British Royal Navy and the touring Barbados Under-20 team last summer. I don't believe any corner league team in the world can lay claim to such an accomplishment.
Thirdly, the fact that the BNYISL operates between May and September would suggest that it is more than a recreational league. More than that, college scouts regularly keep tabs on matches and several players are recruited for college with grants of up to US$40,000 a year given to these student-athletes towards their tuition. In fact, over the past five years,
Kandia has been instrumental in sourcing an average of two such scholarships per year. The clubs here might not be able to attract a million-pound transfer fee for players as Jamaica's top two professional clubs can lay claim to, but several here are instrumental in providing invaluable opportunities, especially those of a scholastic nature.
With that said, it might be in Mr Simoes' best interest to keep tabs on the doings of the BNYISL in his tireless quest to improve the Jamaica squad. Which would not be something novel as a few players from the BNYISL (Paul Campbell and Horace Pitt comes to mind) in the late 1980s and early 1990s actually were starters on the Jamaica team for World Cup qualifying 1994. I'm of the opinion that Mr Simoes and club officials of Jamaican NPL teams that brand the BNYISL a "corner league" probably do so based on what players within their sphere tell them. But I'm supremely confident that if they were to do their own investigations they would want to pay closer attention to the league because of its legitimacy, no doubt enhanced by its efficient organisational structure.
Dave Hemming
First Vice-President, BNYISLI
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Dear Editor,
I read a story in the July 16, 2008 edition of your newspaper which made reference to a football league in New York with the description "corner league" attached to it and which went on to describe coach Rene Simoes' disappointment in the three players who play in the league and who refused to turn up for the one-week camp at the Grand Lido Braco.
A "corner league", as I know it, is:
1) One that's restricted to teams within a certain community, district or small town;
2) One which operates outside the ambit of its association or federation, which would have jurisdiction based on geographical location; and
3) One which is purely recreational with a few weeks of competition.
The Bronx New York International League (BNYISL) which these players and several other Jamaica NPL players participate in during the Jamaica off-season is far and above anything close to a corner league. First of all, the league facilitates 18 clubs not only from the Bronx, but from all over the New York Tri-State area, including from the city boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the suburban counties of Long Island and Westchester, and from the states of New Jersey and Connecticut.
Secondly, the league operates under the aegis of the New York State Soccer Association with only licensed state referees, including national referees (those who officiate in international and MLS games) permitted to officiate games.
In fact, there are clubs that are individually affiliated with the USSF which can take up the offer for qualification to the USSF-run US Open Cup (the USA's version of the famous FA Cup). The club of which I am an integral administrator, Kandia, last year alone, through its affiliation with the USSF, was able to host international teams like the British Royal Navy and the touring Barbados Under-20 team last summer. I don't believe any corner league team in the world can lay claim to such an accomplishment.
Thirdly, the fact that the BNYISL operates between May and September would suggest that it is more than a recreational league. More than that, college scouts regularly keep tabs on matches and several players are recruited for college with grants of up to US$40,000 a year given to these student-athletes towards their tuition. In fact, over the past five years,
Kandia has been instrumental in sourcing an average of two such scholarships per year. The clubs here might not be able to attract a million-pound transfer fee for players as Jamaica's top two professional clubs can lay claim to, but several here are instrumental in providing invaluable opportunities, especially those of a scholastic nature.
With that said, it might be in Mr Simoes' best interest to keep tabs on the doings of the BNYISL in his tireless quest to improve the Jamaica squad. Which would not be something novel as a few players from the BNYISL (Paul Campbell and Horace Pitt comes to mind) in the late 1980s and early 1990s actually were starters on the Jamaica team for World Cup qualifying 1994. I'm of the opinion that Mr Simoes and club officials of Jamaican NPL teams that brand the BNYISL a "corner league" probably do so based on what players within their sphere tell them. But I'm supremely confident that if they were to do their own investigations they would want to pay closer attention to the league because of its legitimacy, no doubt enhanced by its efficient organisational structure.
Dave Hemming
First Vice-President, BNYISLI
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