CAN MOBAY UNITED WIN BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO WESTERN JAMAICA

Montego Bay United has met the ambition of their president Orville Powell. Having thrashed the seemingly unbeatable Waterhouse 5-2 in the finals of the Red Stripe Premier League on Monday night, MBU has, at least for the time being, shifted the balance of power from Jamaica’s east to the west from where some of Jamaica’s best footballers came.

There was a time less than two decades ago, that teams like Wadadah, Reno and Seba were among the biggest names in local football. They produced players like Wendell Downswell, Alton Sterling, Winston Anglin, Hector Wright, Stephen Malcolm, and Theodore Whitmore, who were the bedrock of many national teams. For reasons too many to mention here, football died a slow. gradual death after financial lifelines dried up.

Enter Orville Powell, who acquired one of those teams, Seba, re-branded it and made it into a force in local football. Many will remember 2014 as the year when MBU loosened KSAFA’s grip, even if just a little bit, on the premier league, but their success this season could have even more far-reaching implications.

Could this win encourage other investors to look to revive a Wadadah or a Reno, and get them back to national relevance? It is hard to say and perhaps even harder to do. It is no secret that the current structure of the premier league is unsustainable. The clubs are largely broke. Many cant even afford to install proper development programmes, which is absolutely essential if Jamaica’s football is to move forward?

Maybe this win for Mobay United is the spark that the Jamaica Football Federation needs to initiate the needed change in the current structure and force a move into another direction. Jamaica’s football is at its best when teams from western Jamaica are at their best. I remember a time when Jarrett Park and the hills just above were not enough to hold the massive crowds that turned out for matches between the big three – Seba, Reno and Wadadah as well as clubs  like Violet Kickers from whence Aaron Lawrence, Warren Barrett and Whitmore came. Compare that to the paltry turn out at the national stadium on Monday night.

There is a passion in western Jamaica for football that has hardly been seen anywhere else in Jamaica and the time has come for the country to tap into that passion once more. That passion must be injected into a new plan to revive the flagging fortunes of the premier league and the sport in general. Each year it gets harder for the Premier League Clubs Association to raise money to sustain the premier league, and in a country that is broke, there are no indications that those challenges will end anytime soon.

Football has to get the crowds back and maybe western Jamaica is where it needs to start. If Mobay United can be the spark to bring the crowds back, maybe a revived Reno and Wadadah can play their part too, but investment is needed and that there is the bigger challenge.

Investing in football in Jamaica is like throwing money into a black hole. It aint ever coming back. And that’s why things need to change. The Jamaica Football Federation recently proposed a franchise system that would see an estimated 10 franchises set up across the island. However, even before it could get its legs on the ground, the proposal got its legs kicked out from under it by the Kingston and St. Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) who claim the franchise system will not benefit them. It is understandable their concerns because under the proposed changes, they could lose half of the six clubs currently in existence. Whether this is just a matter of sentiment is up for debate as all the cards are not yet from the table from either side.

What is clear though is that the people of western Jamaica have to be re-engaged in the national conversation on football. In four years Orville Powell has brought life back to a club that was all but dead and buried. A sense of pride is now returning to western Jamaica and that could be the fillip that football needs and one that will help it find solutions to the current impasse between KSAFA and the JFF and the bigger problems Jamaica football faces.