By: Damoy Rowe
Jamaica has an undying love for sports. However, despite the great love we have for these sporting disciplines such as track and field, football, basketball, netball, swimming, and rugby, many students are left at the starting blocks when it comes on to furthering their development in their sport of choice.
Our track and field programme offers the most development within this country. Inter-secondary School Sports Association (ISSA), Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) and high schools within the country have done a good job of ensuring these talented athletes foster their development; for example, students use the exposure from ISSA to apply for places in institutions abroad, and the JAAA cultivates a professional presence with athletes when they compete for the country at CARIFTA and other junior athletic events. Track athletes receive proper direction on how they can take the next steps after the ISSA Boys and Girls Championships through track clubs like Maximizing Velocity and Power Track & Field Club (MVP) and Racers Track Club.
However, if track and field can offer this exemplary support, why can’t the other sporting disciplines within our country receive the same treatment, especially football? After the Manning Cup (the U-19 football competition), there is no process of progression due to the lack of a professional football league. This issue does not only reside on the men’s side but also with women’s football. Our Jamaican women made it to the last women’s World Cup held, but many of those women were not selected from the local women’s league; they were selected from women who play in far better leagues across the world.
ISSA must be commended for how they create an environment for student athletes to showcase their talent from as early as 7th grade. However, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) must do more for our local footballers. A system needs to be put in place that offers proper development for these young athletes. Many of these talented boys are then forced to play in the Jamaican Premier League, which doesn’t offer much experience or exposure. Where is the development? Unfortunately, there is none.
Many people who participated in schoolboy football have said that they don’t desire to play in the Jamaican Premier League. “Play JPL, then what? Nobody nah go recognise my talent. Just the same people weh know mi can play ball a see me week in week out, that nah help me,” said Fitzroy Cornwall, who once played for St Georges College at the U-19 level.
Without proper facilities, we cannot equip our players with the necessary tools and skills to thrive in an already competitive industry. By exposing them to mediocre standards, we are only putting them at a disadvantage; therefore, when they leave the firewalls of the country, they eventually have to return. The league has some top players who were once in leagues overseas like the Canadian Premier League, Vietnam, and MLS. Now they have had to come back to their home soil to play professionally. Normally, when a child leaves home, he doesn’t come back to stay unless something is hard. Just like that scenario, we have seen many footballers travel in the wrong direction in hopes of revitalising their careers in a country that offers little exposure as it relates to football.
It can be hard for football to be a profession in Jamaica because, with no proper structure in place, our local football is a joke when compared to other countries within the region and/or across the world. In countries such as England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, the USA, and the Netherlands, they have a proper foundation when it comes to football and the growth of young talent.
There is a saying that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” and sadly, we are failing our country and these talented young men and women at the moment. Without a structure in place, football in Jamaica will continue to stand still, and all this talent that has been developed through the years will just end up going to waste. For a student athlete to develop into a professional athlete, the right infrastructure and foundation must be in place to ensure a smooth and proper transition. Though the JPL has grown dramatically in the past 5 years, even with the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic, I still think more needs to be done for our local players so they can start getting the necessary exposure their talent deserves. So again, I ask the Jamaica Football Federation, “Where is the development?”