Call for US style draft for Manning & D'Cup ballas...

[Don1]

...amid growing realization that the Snow Balla short term tactic is bankrupt & failed


Needed: a draft system in place for football’s future
11:22 am, Mon October 14, 2013

By Patrick Anderson

The Reggae Boyz Campaign is now finally over, beaten 2-0 in Kansas City Friday night by Brazil-bound United States We wish the US well.

And since we are looking forward to the next campaign - the 2016 Qualifiers for Russia 2018, we have to be mindful, 2016 is just around the corner. The country, as I have pointed out before, has two years to prepare.

The JFF will need, yet again, well in excess of J$1 billion to properly prepare, so the brand Reggae Boyz and the brand Jamaica can be spared the blushes of 2013.

Most importantly, the men's senior football team needs a coach in place, immediately, to organise and plan for the 2016 World Cup Qualifiers.

So, what should happen between now and then?

Most football fans are rightly concerned that, over the years, the youth players, especially those in the Manning and DaCosta Cup competitions, and the Under 17 and Under 20 teams which have qualified for respective World Cup finals; those players have not made the transition to the senior programme.

I am not even going to start calling names of outstanding youth footballers who just disappeared after schoolboy competitions, or those who specifically have been to Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup finals.

I suggested to Captain Horace Burrell and Horace Reid long ago that the JFF institute a draft system, so that, after the players are through at the schoolboy level, similar to what happens after college in the USA, the clubs execute a draft of our youth players who will then be attached to local clubs, even if they go to colleges overseas.

That way, it would be compulsory for the clubs to keep abreast and track and look after their drafted players who are overseas, and surely, those youth players who would be drafted but remain locally at the clubs.

The JFF would not need to travel far and wide before qualifiers to seek players, because the young players would be accounted for through the draft system, and with Schafer in place, or whoever the long term coach is - my preference is Schafer - the coach would have his fingers right on the pulse of almost every available player, young or old.

So get with it JFF, and put a draft system in place now!

It's not rocket science.

[Jangle]

Still not the solution, but not a bad idea.

[Mosiah]

Not convinced yet.

[Me]

The draft idea is a waste of time. The good young players are already attached to clubs in most cases by time they finish school. Lets fix the places that these players are attached to rather than creating a system that US doesn't even use at the high school level.

[Mosiah]

Finish school? They are already in clubs and play in the age group competitions from dem 14 and 15!

Farin mind is quite widespread, it seems!

[Bricktop]

Ahmm...how does a draft solve the problem of technically deficient footballers?

[Karl]

Re: The good players are already attached to clubs...

Get what you are saying and it is mostly true...but I just wish to go off on a tangent for a moment and underline that although TALENT ABOUNDS...there are many talented players who year after year just stop playing after graduating from high schools.

...so let me say, the good players who wish to continue playing...

Agree the draft is a waste. One problem would be imperiling any potential US College student running afoul of the rules for ensuring eligibility to play for his college and may also impact scholarship or grant status and thus whether or not an opportunity to attend the college is lost....

A system to track 'ballas' could be and should be implemented that does no harm to the player. Many are they on this site who have called for such a system. Think Sass was one such person?

[Assasin]

too much negitives. If they want to copy something it is better if they copy the US elite club system at the youth level.

[Assasin]

Here is a much better system.

The top developmental men’s league in North America, the 2013 PDL features 64 teams within four conferences throughout the United States and Canada. The PDL season consists of 14 regular season matches for each team, seven home and seven away, and provides elite collegiate players the opportunity to taste a higher level of competition while maintaining their eligibility. In addition to league play, PDL teams compete in the Lamar Hunt. U.S. Open Cup as well as various exhibitions. The PDL has proven to be an important stepping-stone for top professionals now playing throughout the world.

Deshorn Brown was a PDL standout.

[Mosiah]

Hmmm, the USA as template for football development....

Not convinced!

[Assasin]

Mosiah look at the program and take USA out of it.

It is simple you get your elite youth players in a club and play them against each other over the summer. There is nothing US about that, the only thing US about it is the PDL. I don't care what country or who copy, there are two many systems that work, we currently don't have ONE.

[Mosiah]

Who sponsors the PDL, for starters?

[Assasin]

It is private clubs. Any team can apply to be a part of the league as long as they are of a certain standard. Most of the top under 24 players in the US are or were involved.

The teams are spread throughout the states, and the MLS teams also have their academy teams in the league. Because you have more states than MLS teams, it is a way to get a better spread of quality players than just MLS academy. The thing is too many parishes are left out of top quality football for young youths. We have to find a way to get them involved in more quality games. I will support any way that can do this rather than sticking to status quo.

[Mosiah]

So how exactly would it work in Jamaica?

[Assasin]

You could have two elite teams in each parish in the summer. This may include the NPL youth teams and some approved clubs from each parish. You select the best players 30 or 40 players in the parish, give them the best local coaches and have them play over the summer months and JFF could also run camps with them and monitor progress.

If you look from Trelawny on the North to Portland and then go to St. Thomas have no top league teams at the moment, even if they have a budding youngster. With a good selling program Digicel money for the "grassroot" program money could do wonder.