Powell’s departure an ominous sign for football

Western Bureau:

With the 2018/19 Red Stripe Premier League season looming on the horizon, there is now much anxiety as to whether or not St James will have a team in the competition as while Montego Bay United Football Club (MBUFC) is qualified to participate, a cloud is hanging over their participation.

As he has done on at least two previous occasions since he acquired the old Seba United franchise in 2011 and renamed the team MBUFC, businessman Orville Powell, the club's chairman and primary financier, has once again declared publicly that he is walking away from football for good.

While I am prepared to take Powell's declaration that "mi finish with it, I just don't want to talk about any football. I have said before that I done with it" with the proverbial grain of salt, I am still concerned that several of the club's top players are signing up with other clubs for the upcoming season.

Like Powell, I am also concerned about the state of national football and what appears to be an unwillingness to embrace change at the leadership level. In fact, like Craig Butler, the outspoken boss of Phoenix Academy, I believe that under the current system, our football is on a highway to nowhere.

At present, my main concern is that with Powell, who is one of the few persons who has put his money where his mouth is in western JamaicaN football, seemingly throwing in the towel, there is a strong possibility that the entire football structure in St James will collapse. It is no secret that it has been the high-profile presence of MBUFC that has been keeping football alive in St James.

In fact, after watching Wadadah FC's dismal campaign in the 2018/19 Red Stripe NPL qualification tournament, in which they failed to win a single game and suffered the indignity of being beaten 10-0 in one game, it is clear that if Wadadah are the best that St James has to offer behind MBUFC, the parish is heading for the football wilderness.

BAD INVESTMENT

While I am tempted to encourage Powell to stay on and continue his strong advocacy for transparency, accountability and an overall new direction in national football, I would feel guilty knowing that I would be encouraging him to continue in a bad situation, which is clearly a case of throwing good money into a bad investment.

To be truthful, after watching the phenomenal investment that Powell has made in national football through the development of the exceptional structure at Wespow Park, which is easily the best all-inclusive private sporting facility in Jamaica, it is sad that the failure of our football administrators, to include the parish presidents in western Jamaica, lack the guts to help him fight for the changes, which are so necessary.

Despite the optimism surrounding the current national senior team programme, I still believe we are probably just one more unsuccessful campaign away from complete disaster. The RSPL does not qualify as a national nursery because the quality of the football is substandard. So, unless we are able to continue attracting players with Jamaican ties from England and other countries, doomsday cannot be far away.

As I have been doing since he took over the leadership of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) last year, I am again calling on JFF President Michael Ricketts and the rural bosses to come to their collective senses and start making the changes needed to fix our national programme, which I am convinced is being undermined by the selfish administrators in Kingston.

Ricketts and the rural administrators need to realise that based on their collective strength, they are really the ones with the clout. It therefore must be dereliction of duty when they sit back and allow the tail to wag the dog. Powell's departure might just be the beginning of the exodus of persons who really want to do good but are being frustrated by a system that is resisting change.