Moses urges businesses to take ownership of football clubs

[Mosiah]

"Yes, we are on the verge of winning the Gold Cup. Will we be able to repeat this in two years' time? For continuity we need something far more sustainable than what we have at present," Moses opined. "We cannot keep the momentum going by going around the world that may not have participated in our programmes.
"But they were developed by someone else and thank God for them. It serves a purpose for now. But we have to take ownership as our responsibility and develop our players. If not we will always be looking for players from outside of Jamaica and players who are not necessarily first generation Jamaicans.
"It is fine that they want to associate with us. We welcome them. But we must put programmes in place for us to compete more favourably with them," Moses emphasised.

http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/...clubs_19220680

[Assasin]

Long time mi a say that. Problem is how our clubs are run and owned.

When is the franchise system coming online?

[Gamma]

it has to be sustainable on some level.

once businessmen feel like they are just pouring money into a club and there is no return or little prospect of a return then owning the club becomes like a hobby to do with as they please when they please...

maybe if the clubs go public they can raise some capital but that is not enough, there must be some sort of a steady income stream to build and maintain a playing field, to play coaches and staff and players, obtain equipment....

we need to investigate somewhere like Uruguay which has a similar population size but a fairly successful football league to see how they manage to do it.

some things which are probably in their favour include: proximity to argentina and brasil; gdp (disposable income); economy generally .....

[Assasin]

We have a history where sugarcane factories use to run their cricket teams. Hoteliers have their football teams. Some of these are paid players. I played in the St.Ann/St.Mary hotel league which is now Business League.

Sandals currently have a team in the Western conference. I think if approached with the right plan and ownership structure it can work. An example is Jamaica Producers team in St. Mary. Get the hoteliers to buy in, including Spanish hoteliers and big companies like Grace, Seprod, JPS, Digicel, Lime etc. It means that the current community structure has to change and the don man ownership have to disappear and supporters behavior have to be better. This is the real challenge.

[HL]

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This discussion is "as old as the hills". Well, maybe not so old.

But, club management and ownership is critical to quality football. This is going to be a tough one--since football overall infrastructure is required to make it work.

Football is first business. The folks who are managers are likely past players who have no experience in management.

Bet you next year (and the year after)we will be having this same conversation.

[Lazie]

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The leagues will have to be restructured for this to work. We have too many leagues for the limited pool of players available.

13 D1 leagues, 13 D2 leagues, NPL, the league to get into NPL etc.

[Gamma]

And that wi not be a bad thing. When there is no more conversation the. Hope would have died

[Paul Marin]

We have a history where sugarcane factories use to run their cricket teams. Hoteliers have their football teams. Some of these are paid players. I played in the St.Ann/St.Mary hotel league which is now Business League.

Sandals currently have a team in the Western conference. I think if approached with the right plan and ownership structure it can work. An example is Jamaica Producers team in St. Mary. Get the hoteliers to buy in, including Spanish hoteliers and big companies like Grace, Seprod, JPS, Digicel, Lime etc. It means that the current community structure has to change and the don man ownership have to disappear and supporters behavior have to be better. This is the real challenge.

when did you play in the hotel league (year) - and for who?

[Paul Marin]

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This seems to me to be a ridiculous idea. Most businesses of the type I think he is referring to have core competencies that are outside the realm of football. If you as an investor put your hard earned money into a construction company, or a manufacturer, how is management's investment into buying a football club aligned with my interests as a shareholder? Unless there is some magic formula that I am not aware of, a business owning a football club would be nothing but a management distraction unless the business was already in the sports and entertainment field. Unu wheel an' tun wid a new idea.

[Assasin]

I was a student of HEART Runaway Bay Academy and we entered in 1987. Mostly students but we drew with Jamaica Jamaica, and the mighty Couples hotel at the time. Beat a few other teams. Did you play? I was the bad bwoy defender who made some wicked overlapping and hold players like Wang Sang youth. Upon graduation Jamaica Jamaica wanted me but I moved from St.Ann to Mobay but they never had a league.

Did you play?

[Gamma]

Exactly

[Assasin]

Paul currently almost every hotel have a team. If the environment was right the support in the community it would be welcomed by guests and community.

Hotel cricket is much more organized and a lot of the national players are involved with a mix of employees. Look at places like St. Lucia, every team is sponsored or owned by a business. The business may not run it directly but can get support. I can go back to the days when you had sugar cricket, it was a big thing. I am not sure of the method to use but the fact is the problem is getting away from the don type ownership and "district community ownership".

Moses could start by buying a team, he is consider a former footballer and a management expert.

[Assasin]

I can remember Bad bwoy "Puggie" who made some stone rain down the hill after the spectator them teasing that the "schoolers" them mash him. This was at a field up in St.Anns Bay.

Remember Wong Sang and mi brethren "Ugly" Ellis from Titchfield who played for Volvo. Mi brethren Oswayne Hype who wanted mi fi come play for Color White.

[Paul Marin]

I did not play - I coached Franklin D Resort for three games in 1993. We lost all 3 games. The discipline was ridiculous. There was no sense or concept of what training was about. All the fellows were of the mindset where "brucking" and "being a shotta" was the extent of their understanding. A big problem I had was that more than half the team was illiterate, not something to be underestimated. This was a shock to me b/c I handed out a written plan only to find out that they couldn't read. Big problems when the basics aren't there.

[Paul Marin]

Paul currently almost every hotel have a team. If the environment was right the support in the community it would be welcomed by guests and community.

Hotel cricket is much more organized and a lot of the national players are involved with a mix of employees. Look at places like St. Lucia, every team is sponsored or owned by a business. The business may not run it directly but can get support. I can go back to the days when you had sugar cricket, it was a big thing. I am not sure of the method to use but the fact is the problem is getting away from the don type ownership and "district community ownership".

Moses could start by buying a team, he is consider a former footballer and a management expert.

The hotel league is very different from a professional league. And sponsorship is not ownership. You are highlighting an important distinction because these leagues are community organizations, not businesses. Very very different.