JFF says it's committed to women's football

BY SEAN A WILLIAMS Assistant Sport Editor

Monday, February 20, 2012

THE Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is claiming that it has invested significantly in the infrastructure of women's football over "the past two years".

In the same breath, the local governing body has conceded that the two operational women's teams continue to suffer from a lack of corporate support even as they enter the finals of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifers.

"The JFF has demonstrated in very tangible ways its support for the development of women's football in Jamaica through its investment in our national teams over the past two years in particular. Never before in our footballing history has any team, except for the Senior Men's National Team, had the Federation expend scare resources on its talent pool beyond the shores of Jamaica," said general secretary, Horace Reid.

"No less than eight players, selected for the U20 Girlz to the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and CONCACAF U20 Girlz Finals to be staged in Panama, are currently playing in the United States and Canada," explained the veteran football administrator.

As part of the broad development projects undertaken, the JFF has cited the FIFA Women's COM-UNITY course as another success story.

"The staging of the FIFA Women's COM-UNITY course held last September and the follow-up initiatives with FIFA is a concerted effort to widen and increase the participation of players, coaches and administrators in women's football," said Reid.

Based on that success, FIFA has approved a number of other women's football initiatives "to be rolled out in the coming months by the JFF".

"This includes GRASSROOTS for girls, competition at the primary school level and coaching education for coaches specialising in women's football," Reid said yesterday.

The efforts to sustain the life of the programme and renew the activities surrounding it, is deemed "a deliberate strategy of sustenance in generating greater interest, not only from the technical infrastructure, but equally to widen public awareness and interest".

"In so doing, it is our expectation that corporate support will increase and find consistent favour. The girls have demonstrated so far that they are more than deserving," Reid outlined.

The Under-20 Reggae Girlz will commence their CONCACAF Women's World Cup qualifying championship on March 1, while the Under-17s have their play-offs at this level in May.

The Senior Girlz programme was suspended in 2010 as part of a cost-cutting exercise by a cash-strapped JFF, but there are plans afoot to resurrect it in the near future.

On the corporate support front, only Sherwin Williams Jamaica and IRIE FM have maintained unwavering support for women's football across its planks.

"Through Sherwin Williams' support over the past decade we have managed to keep the flames of women's football burning and no praise can be too great for the vision, tangible and moral support that this giant of a company has given to women's football in Jamaica. "It is through Sherwin Williams' investment that we have realised increased and wider participation of girls playing football across the country. Also, IRIE FM has in no uncertain manner been a worthy and great friend of women's football and we find this to be commendable," noted Reid.

So bereft of financing, the Under-20s will enter competition in just over a week's time without a desired international training camp, which was proposed for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

While their Group A rivals Canada and Mexico are at the height of preparation with international training camps, the Young Girlz have to settle for a five-day, two-game exercise against local opposition.

It is not known what level of preparation their other zone rival, Haiti, have employed, but they are known to spend a lot of time in South Florida ahead of tournaments.

"The overseas games were important from the standpoint that we would have been playing teams that have players with the same characteristics as the teams we will be playing against in the tournament. However, the games locally will allow me to organise the team tactically," said head coach, Vin Blaine, last week.

In Group A of the CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Championship slated exclusively for Panama City, Jamaica will open their campaign against Canada on March 1, then continue with Mexico on the 3rd and Haiti two days later.

The other group — with games designated for March 2, 4 and 6 — will see hosts Panama, champion and powerhouse USA, Guatemala and Cuba doing battle.

Following the preliminary round, the top-two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals on March 9. The winners of those games will advance to the final and will gain automatic qualification to next summer's World Cup in Japan.

The losers will engage in a third-place play-off for the other qualifying spot. The final and third-place play-off matches will be played on March 11.

Jamaica booked their spot as the third qualifying team from the Caribbean for the CONCACAF play-offs following the recent CFU tournament in the Dominican Republic.

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JFF says it's committed to women's football