Western Bureau

Much as I am tempted to commit this entire column to Jamaica's less than acceptable run in the current phase of the Back to Africa 2010 World Cup campaign, there are some pertinent matters about St James' football I would like to address so I have decided to explore both.

The seemingly aimless mission of the Reggae Boyz is as disappointing as it is embarrassing as in my opinion; poor team selection is at the heart of our problem. Unless one is mentally bankrupt, it must be clear that blending old players with inexperienced ones must be a recipe for disaster.

I believe someone owes the nation an explanation as to why our best striker Marlon King and other players such as the talented midfielder Richard Langley and the wily New York Red Bulls striker Dane Richards are not on a team, which is full of players of inferior quality.

total disgust

Based on the lack of cohesion coupled with the endless amount of bad passes I saw in the games against Mexico and Honduras, I hold very little hope for this team whether we are playing at home or overseas. In fact, I can't see a team with such deficiencies taking maximum nine points from their three home games.

To the matter of St James' football, I recently made a public statement expressing my total disgust with the current structure of the parish's football, which to my mind is geared more towards providing recreation than developing talent for the national programme and possibly the professional circuit.

What is basically wrong with St James' football is that the administration seems to lack the vision to develop a proper product and as a consequence, the parish is left with a structure that is more like a corner league. For one to get into the parish's domestic programme, the only criterion seem to be the ability to come up with the required registration fee.

senior league

It is this corner-league style approach that has resulted in the parish, which can't even find a team good enough to represent us in the Digicel NPL, to have a mammoth 42 teams competing between its senior league and Division Two competitions. It is no wonder that the most attractive football in the parish is the Western Masters League.

I have read in the media recently where an official of the St James FA issued a most offensive 'step up or shut up' statement, intimating that those persons who have been expressing displeasure with the state of the parish's football should either step forward and join them or hold back on the criticism.

While I have been quite critical of the FA in recent times, I don't believe that comment could be meant for me because I believe I have paid my dues. Prior to stepping away from the board recently, I served the parish's football continuously for over 20 years, which means I was around during the glory days when St James ruled national football.

substandard teams

In the good old days, the parish's football was not lacking in direction and as a result we had good teams. Today, we have more teams than supporters and as a consequence, instead of a community turning out one good team, what we are seeing is a proliferation of substandard teams with not enough good talent to impress.

Although I have not lost my love for St James football, because of the difficulty I am having trying to convince our administrators to change the current course; I have decided to step away from the administrative side of the parish's football. I intend to stay away until I see a return to the days where we have no more than 12 senior teams with all the other competition being junior competitions.

The current Division Two Competition should be converted to an Under-19 competition to serve as a nursery for the senior teams. This should be backed up by strong Under-17, Under-15 and Under-12 competitions.

NB: Feel free to send your feedback to adrianfrater@hotmail.com