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Football needs proper financial management
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Now, more than ever before, the executive of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) must be ruing the failure of the Reggae Boyz in 2008 to qualify themselves for this year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
We are certain that had the Boyz been World Cup-bound there would have been no talk of staff and programme cuts, such as the shelving of the senior women's programme, or of embarrassing raids by bailiffs on the JFF's New Kingston offices.
Readers should take note that on the same day that this newspaper carried major stories in its sports pages about JFF staff cuts and a visit by bailiffs, there was also a report on telecommunications company LIME's $21-million sponsorship deal to support the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) over the next three years.
We note that LIME Jamaica's chairman Mr Chris Dehring is reported as having hailed track and field as a passion of Jamaicans which shaped the society, and the JAAA, "based on results", as probably the "best-run sports administration this part of the world".
The reference to "results" clearly relates to the wondrous achievements of our athletes over time and most recently by the likes of Mr Usain Bolt, Misses Melaine Walker, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Mrs Veronica Campbell-Brown, et al.
In other words, success attracts sponsors and financial backers. Failure drives them away.
We would suggest, though, that success or failure is not only about results on the field or on the track.
A sense that the particular sporting association is paying basic attention to the bottom line and is taking care of its responsibilities is also crucial. On that score and on the basis of the limited information available, this newspaper is left with no option but to suspect that successive administrations of the JFF have fallen way short. Hence the current indebtedness.
So now the Captain Horace Burrell-led JFF which, by the way, is in an election year, must seek to repair the damage and take appropriate action to hold off its debtors. We note the comment from general secretary, Mr Horace Reid, that the JFF executive has been meeting with representatives of corporate entities and the Government in a bid to get some "help".
These are very difficult times, and the Jamaican Government and a number of private sector companies are as financially challenged as they have ever been. But, as Mr Reid has pointed out, Jamaica "cannot do without" football. By whatever means necessary, a way will have to be found to resolve the crisis now facing the JFF.
Also, by whatever means necessary, all stakeholders -- including the JFF management, sponsors and Government -- need to make sure that going forward there is proper financial management of Jamaica's football.
It's obvious, too, that all sporting associations should take heed.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...--2010_7520201
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Now, more than ever before, the executive of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) must be ruing the failure of the Reggae Boyz in 2008 to qualify themselves for this year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
We are certain that had the Boyz been World Cup-bound there would have been no talk of staff and programme cuts, such as the shelving of the senior women's programme, or of embarrassing raids by bailiffs on the JFF's New Kingston offices.
Readers should take note that on the same day that this newspaper carried major stories in its sports pages about JFF staff cuts and a visit by bailiffs, there was also a report on telecommunications company LIME's $21-million sponsorship deal to support the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) over the next three years.
We note that LIME Jamaica's chairman Mr Chris Dehring is reported as having hailed track and field as a passion of Jamaicans which shaped the society, and the JAAA, "based on results", as probably the "best-run sports administration this part of the world".
The reference to "results" clearly relates to the wondrous achievements of our athletes over time and most recently by the likes of Mr Usain Bolt, Misses Melaine Walker, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Mrs Veronica Campbell-Brown, et al.
In other words, success attracts sponsors and financial backers. Failure drives them away.
We would suggest, though, that success or failure is not only about results on the field or on the track.
A sense that the particular sporting association is paying basic attention to the bottom line and is taking care of its responsibilities is also crucial. On that score and on the basis of the limited information available, this newspaper is left with no option but to suspect that successive administrations of the JFF have fallen way short. Hence the current indebtedness.
So now the Captain Horace Burrell-led JFF which, by the way, is in an election year, must seek to repair the damage and take appropriate action to hold off its debtors. We note the comment from general secretary, Mr Horace Reid, that the JFF executive has been meeting with representatives of corporate entities and the Government in a bid to get some "help".
These are very difficult times, and the Jamaican Government and a number of private sector companies are as financially challenged as they have ever been. But, as Mr Reid has pointed out, Jamaica "cannot do without" football. By whatever means necessary, a way will have to be found to resolve the crisis now facing the JFF.
Also, by whatever means necessary, all stakeholders -- including the JFF management, sponsors and Government -- need to make sure that going forward there is proper financial management of Jamaica's football.
It's obvious, too, that all sporting associations should take heed.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...--2010_7520201
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