Football's World Cup trophy is golden, though not quite an egg in its spherical parts. And René Simoes, the man who once wore 'Jesus Saves' on the front of his shirt, is far from being a goose, although he often does seem like a mother hen doting on and worrying about her brood.

Those discrepancies apart, though, the concept of killing the goose that lays the golden egg applies to the extreme hike in fees to see the return of Simoes when Jamaica takes on Costa Rica at the National Stadium in February.

As reported in yesterday's STAR, Burrell announced that the entry fee to the 'Office' will be just about doubled for all categories of seats. And while we expect that the football fans will dig into their pockets, we know that they will want a bang for their bucks. They will want victory and nothing less, and herein lies the rub.

For, anything short of those expectations will be seen as a betrayal of demonstrated confidence and the geese of the public, which is expected to lay thousands of golden eggs on the projected $1 billion path to the 2010 World Cup, will simply stop laying.

While it may be a special occasion and nothing has been said to indicate that subsequent matches at the National Stadium, including the much-anticipated World Cup qualifiers, will be priced at the same or similar levels, the hiked fees do set a precedent as well as test the waters for sustained increases.

It would do the Jamaica Football Federation well to not make the test too hard.