Samuels

Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

AMID THE gloom surrounding the relegation of Seba United from the National Premier League and the failure of Wadadah to advance from a subsequent play-off tournament, football administrators in the west remain convinced that the region's football is not in as bad a shape as it would appear.

"To say football in the west is dead is not quite true," said Trelawny Football Association president Linnel McLean, while addressing a Gleaner Editors' Forum in Montego Bay on Thursday.

"Our NPL clubs might not be doing well, but our youth programmes are doing quite well and producing the desire results."

General secretary of the Hanover FA, Sheridan Samuels, who had high praise for the region's youth football programmes, cited the quality of the region's daCosta Cup teams.

Sponsorship impediment

He said the inability to attract quality sponsorship was the primary factor impeding the advancement of western Jamaica's football.

"We have youngsters who are getting into the various national programmes," said Samuels. "Our greatest problem is our inability to secure sponsorship. In Hanover, over the past seven years, we have not been able to have more than two good sponsors at any one time."

In making a comparison between the various confederations, Samuels said the west was still ahead of the South Central and the Eastern Confederations and intimated that KSAFA was only ahead because it was benefiting from superior sponsorship support from corporate Jamaica.

"Our football is down but not out," said Samuels. "It is just that we are unfortunate. We are not getting the kind of support we would like from the private sector and corporate Jamaica and that is what KSAFA has over us."

In endorsing the view of the other western administrators, Bruce Gaynor, second vice- president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and general secretary of the St. James FA, was of the view that the west would continue to struggle unless corporate Jamaica changed its policy towards supporting football in rural Jamaica.

Continue to lag

"Until Kingston realises that they are not Jamaica, we are going to continue to have a problem here in the west," said Gaynor. "Most of these companies have their head offices in Kingston and until they realise that their support should be widespread and not individualistic, we will continue to lag behind."

While not discounting the view that corporate sponsorship was a problem, other respected voices such as former referee/coach and now noted cricket umpire Steve Bucknor, Westmoreland FA president Everton Tomlinson and former national coach Wendell Downswell all offered different perspective, noting that the region had previously done well in the past with limited corporate support.

"Our administrators have lost their way and, as a result, our programmes are not as effective as they should be," said Bucknor. "We also need to get proper coaches and get rid of some of the 'weekenders' now leading our youngsters astray."