30th Anniversary Newspaper Supplement
Tertiary Education Choices On The Path To “Professional Football”
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TERTIARY EDUCATION
CHOICES ON THE PATH TO “PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL”.
At present most of our best players are being lost to Jamaica as a result of the granting of scholarships to most of our gifted young players to further their education in the USA and at the same time help the school achieve excellence in their school soccer competitions this has afforded a lot of these players to achieve Bachelor of Science (BSc) qualifications at the Universities in the United States of America. Every year the cream of our sporting talents are being siphoned off to these Universities. A lot of these youngsters do achieve excellence in their education, however, a lot of them just fall through the cracks, in any case, those that return are invariably lesser quality players than when they left due to the lower standard of the University competitions in the USA compared to our Premier League. Recently the better performing players in these Universities are placed in the draft and if selected to play in their professional leagues are lost to Jamaica with no compensation to the clubs, but this development is for another discussion, the point I am making is, if most of our talented youngsters are lost to us through any reason we will not be able to lift the standard of football in Jamaica to acceptable levels. We should be working at finding ways to plug this “Talent Drain” and at the same time encourage the importation of quality talent from overseas to further improve our talent base in the Premier League. The solution is not to deprive these youngsters of a higher education, this is very necessary, what I think the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) should be doing is to obtain scholarships for these qualified youths to gain a tertiary education right here in Jamaica, this of course would require large funding. A lot of administrative time could be spent tapping the various funding sources including Government, Private Enterprises, Sport Development Foundation, other Local and International Foundations and the JFF’s own income sources. In the United States school environment, quality Jamaican players become superstars at a lower intensity level and are therefore carried away in the euphoria. Unfortunately, on their return to Jamaica they find it difficult to cope with the higher competitive level of our Premier League and as they are then 4 years older, find it more difficult to adjust. Cost of Tertiary Education:
Full Scholarships could be given to out of town students with high academic qualifications. Part Scholarships would be for students who could attend school from home All of the above must be considered in the context of their earning capacity eg., Earn and Study, or their area of need.
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A lot has been said and I am sure a
lot will continue to be said, regarding the blueprint for the
improvement of the quality of football in Jamaica. It is agreed by
all that in the mix of what should be done to achieve this level of
quality is “Professionalism”. What is not readily appreciated is
that professionalism not only applies to players, it more
importantly applies to Administrators both in the Federation and at
the Clubs, Coaches, and Managers. It is important that these levels
become professional in their duties before they can effectively
provide the atmosphere that demands a professional approach by
players in things such as attitude, strict adherence to Rules,
Regulations, Codes of Conduct, Personal discipline, higher levels of
Concentration, Dedication, Determination etc.