FORMER PREMIER League coach Geoffrey Maxwell says the Edward Seaga-led Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), which will effectively take over the running of the premiership next season, should have been in place 10 years ago and must be followed quickly by the establishment of a professional league.

The new PLCA sought improved sponsorship and wooed the Cash Plus Group to pump $150 million into the league for three seasons.

English Premiership system

The PLCA is fashioned off the English Premiership system with each club holding a share in what is effectively a company which conducts the financial and business affairs of the group.

"I think the formation of the association was strictly income because I don't hear anybody saying anything about a professional league," Maxwell pointed out.

Burchell Gibson, general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), said the federation's board of directors, on September 9, had appointed an interim body comprising three officers of the JFF and five from the PLCA with the objective of creating a separate league in accordance with the articles of the JFF and subject to approval of its congress.

"For this 2007-2008 season, the JFF would actually run the competition. The competition's committee would have full oversight and the administrators would be in charge of all logistics, fixtures, appointments and liaison with the referees' association.

"However, under this new committee, hopefully for the 2008-2009 season, the Premier League would be a separate entity with the JFF having oversight responsibility," he explained.

an ideal situation

Maxwell said it was an ideal situation, which would give clubs more bargaining power. "They will now have more control over their future," he said, pointing out that Kingston College's Leslie Lucas had suggested the idea 10 years ago.

"They should have started a professional league after World Cup qualification," he added.

"A fully professional league, with companies owning teams, should have been put in place, similar to Major League Soccer in the United States," Maxwell reasoned.

"That's where we made our first blunder when we did not start a pro league immediately after the World Cup. We lost a massive market there."