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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The former England international, Mr John Barnes, was spot on in his analysis of Jamaica's World Cup Football programme published in this week's Sunday Observer.
Corporate Jamaica, he said, just didn't share the vision of the longevity of the national football programme, so they dropped the ball in terms of their sponsorship after Jamaica's exit from the 1998 World Cup Finals in France.
The upshot is that we had to rebuild from scratch, and it didn't help any that we failed to advance to the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, then slumped further four years later by not making it to the finals of the CONCACAF group.
Of course, there were a few companies that stuck with the programme. But the vast majority of firms that bought into the possibility of our historic qualification in 1998 and, as Mr Barnes rightly said, got mileage from our participation in the tournament, walked off the field for the last time with the team after our final game in Lyon.
We don't share Mr Barnes' view that there is an absence here of desire. What we believe is lacking among those who can afford to assist the national football programme in a big way is faith and, most important, patience.
For, as Mr Barnes pointed out, the sport could have been much more advanced here had the majority of the sponsors stuck with it after 1998.
In that regard, we must recognise the unwavering support for the sport locally by J Wray & Nephew, Digicel, Red Stripe, Air Jamaica, Sports Development Foundation (SDF), GraceKennedy, Pepsi and Jamaica National, all of which have pumped millions of dollars in at varying levels.
Of course, we don't expect that companies will merely throw money at the national football programme without first ensuring that the funds are used for the purposes contributed. It is therefore incumbent on the sport's administrators to guarantee that their operations are transparent and can stand up to scrutiny, as that will assist in giving sponsors the comfort they require to maintain their support.
International football is a multi-billion-dollar business. Therefore, there is no reason why Jamaica should not seek to capitalise on the sport's popularity, both via our domestic leagues and national teams.
Mobile phone provider Digicel, we notice, has recognised this and has extended by four years its sponsorship of the Caribbean Cup, which is a qualifying tournament for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Based on the deliberate and meticulous development strategy now being employed by Mr Bora Milutinovic, the technical director of our national football programme, we would not be surprised if Jamaica does well at next year's Gold Cup.
As we said in this space on Saturday, Mr Milutinovic is not at this moment concerned about winning games. Instead, his intention is to get his players accustomed to an approach to football that he believes will make them winners next year.
"I know the public likes to win," he is reported as saying, "but I hope you understand what is the difference between winning the game and being winners. We need to prepare the team to be winners".
We couldn't agree with Mr Milutinovic more. And we are already starting to see some positive results from his approach, as the national team put in a creditable performance in their friendly international against Chile last week at the National Stadium in Kingston.
But it takes time. Our hope is that the supporters of the team, as well as the sponsors, recognise this and can exercise the patience the programme needs to succeed.
The former England international, Mr John Barnes, was spot on in his analysis of Jamaica's World Cup Football programme published in this week's Sunday Observer.
Corporate Jamaica, he said, just didn't share the vision of the longevity of the national football programme, so they dropped the ball in terms of their sponsorship after Jamaica's exit from the 1998 World Cup Finals in France.
The upshot is that we had to rebuild from scratch, and it didn't help any that we failed to advance to the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, then slumped further four years later by not making it to the finals of the CONCACAF group.
Of course, there were a few companies that stuck with the programme. But the vast majority of firms that bought into the possibility of our historic qualification in 1998 and, as Mr Barnes rightly said, got mileage from our participation in the tournament, walked off the field for the last time with the team after our final game in Lyon.
We don't share Mr Barnes' view that there is an absence here of desire. What we believe is lacking among those who can afford to assist the national football programme in a big way is faith and, most important, patience.
For, as Mr Barnes pointed out, the sport could have been much more advanced here had the majority of the sponsors stuck with it after 1998.
In that regard, we must recognise the unwavering support for the sport locally by J Wray & Nephew, Digicel, Red Stripe, Air Jamaica, Sports Development Foundation (SDF), GraceKennedy, Pepsi and Jamaica National, all of which have pumped millions of dollars in at varying levels.
Of course, we don't expect that companies will merely throw money at the national football programme without first ensuring that the funds are used for the purposes contributed. It is therefore incumbent on the sport's administrators to guarantee that their operations are transparent and can stand up to scrutiny, as that will assist in giving sponsors the comfort they require to maintain their support.
International football is a multi-billion-dollar business. Therefore, there is no reason why Jamaica should not seek to capitalise on the sport's popularity, both via our domestic leagues and national teams.
Mobile phone provider Digicel, we notice, has recognised this and has extended by four years its sponsorship of the Caribbean Cup, which is a qualifying tournament for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Based on the deliberate and meticulous development strategy now being employed by Mr Bora Milutinovic, the technical director of our national football programme, we would not be surprised if Jamaica does well at next year's Gold Cup.
As we said in this space on Saturday, Mr Milutinovic is not at this moment concerned about winning games. Instead, his intention is to get his players accustomed to an approach to football that he believes will make them winners next year.
"I know the public likes to win," he is reported as saying, "but I hope you understand what is the difference between winning the game and being winners. We need to prepare the team to be winners".
We couldn't agree with Mr Milutinovic more. And we are already starting to see some positive results from his approach, as the national team put in a creditable performance in their friendly international against Chile last week at the National Stadium in Kingston.
But it takes time. Our hope is that the supporters of the team, as well as the sponsors, recognise this and can exercise the patience the programme needs to succeed.
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