I MUST have missed a zero, or probably two. It may sound a bit weird, but that's exactly how I felt when I read this quote: "He sold me 40 per cent of the football club for $4 million".

That declaration, made by Wayne Ebanks as he sought to put some definition to the ownership rift regarding Clarendon Premier League club Sporting Central Academy and its Brancourt home facility, originated on the website JamaicaWin.com and appeared in yesterday's edition of The Gleaner.

Ridiculous figures

Forty per cent of a football club, a Premier League club, for $4 million! I'm still finding it hard to believe that a Premier League club is worth $10 million.

This is, considering Premier League clubs spend more than $12 million and close to $20 million to foot their bills in any one season. Premier League clubs have even sold one player for more than $60 million.

I have such a big problem even trying to fathom what appears quite a ridiculous sales figure that I'm forced to wonder, as uncanny as it seems, whether Ebanks had paid up to finance the club for just one season.

But, alas! And according to what he said, that is not the deal.

Organising itself

Frankly, that is probably what a club should be getting from a really soft transfer deal for just one player and if it is really so, it does not speak favourably about the readiness of many clubs in Jamaica to deal with football as the business it ought to be.

I say many, which could well be a vast understatement, because the Sporting Central Academy football team is one of only 12 participating in the Premier League, which sets standards for aligning itself to professional leagues where sport is big business.

Among the elite Premier League grouping here, there are some clubs that are far more organised and advanced in the business approach and work hard to capitalise on the opportunities to market players, who are the biggest assets of the clubs.

Harbour View, Portmore United and Tivoli Gardens, mainly, have been forerunners in this regard as they have benefitted from the sale and loan agreements of top players such as Ricardo Gardner, Ricardo Fuller, Omar Daley, including many others, to mainly European-based clubs.

Association skills

Sporting Central are in the Premier League for their second season, but if 40 per cent of the club has actually been sold for $4 million, I'd advise Brandon Murray, a foundation owner of Sporting Central, to feed more off his fellow executives in the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), a body established by the clubs last season to maximise efficiency in dealing with their own matters.

There is a vast amount of experience in that group, people who are well experienced not only in football, but the real business aspect, which includes the primary function of developing talent for export.

Opportunities exist

Some of those individuals include a former prime minister, a former minister of finance and some notable leaders in the business fraternity, amongst others, who, I sincerely believe, are willing to offer sound advice on matters re club financing, which appears to have acted as the catalyst in this ownership rift.

The whole matter of financing is significantly greater for clubs that graduate into the big league, which brings greater financial constraints through com-mitments (salary, transportation costs, etc.).

The concept of an academy producing youth footballers in a mid-island loaded with talent is grand. And Sporting Central is not short on youthful talent, with at least five players on the national Under-20 team.

Therefore, opportunities exist for marketing the club in true football sense - as a business worthy of $4 million.