LAST week, Captain Horace Burrell voiced his displeasure at the manner in which the state-run Sports Development Foundation (SDF) currently executes the implementation and improvement of sporting facilities around the country.

According to the local football boss, the SDF probably has its priorities misplaced in building a host of small, community-based projects, rather than constructing fewer venues of a much higher standard that could host international events.

In alluding to Jamaica’s limited and diminishing potential to bid for global sporting competitions as a consequence of this parochial approach, Burrell — with qualification for the 2014 World Cup Finals clearly in mind — believes this oversight also affects the standard of play of the local footballers, in particular.

In suggesting that an important factor in the improvement of football in any country is the facilities that are provided, Burrell asserted that these hypothetically sophisticated venues should be strategically positioned to enable easy access to local sporting talents.

As much as Burrell’s vision is credible, however, and one with which any ambitious individual would corroborate, it’s only fair to examine both sides of the coin. For, while one would love to see Jamaica have at least an additional four world-class multi-sport venues in places like Clarendon, St Mary or Portland, and St Catherine, the social benefits of the community-based facilities cannot be discounted either — as SDF chairman David Mais has articulated.

Indeed, empirical evidence verifies the idea that adolescents get involved in unsavoury activities primarily because of a lack of meaningful extra-curricular engagements. In this regard, the availability of community-based courts and fields is vital in preventing indolence among teenagers and young adults, while facilitating and enhancing the upgrading of skills in a number of sporting endeavours.

Of course, one is not for a moment intimating that Burrell cannot appreciate the value of community-based activities and the subsequent need for facilities in these districts. In fact, as he would readily attest, almost all of our young sporting stars have had their beginnings at that level.

That this kind of grooming must be preserved in the interest of national pride and for the perpetuation of Jamaican sporting success is therefore quite a truism.

But even though we don’t exist in Utopia, a good balance would be the erection of both types of facilities to accommodate sporting activities at both the community and international levels. In the same vein, the challenge that exists — which is the perpetual bane of the Jamaican experience — is a lack of resources.

However, in alluding to the popular proverb which cites the need for sacrifice in order to achieve success, maybe the time is at hand for the Jamaican government to take a leaf out of Trinidad and Tobago’s book as it relates to real investment in sport.

Indeed, not only has T&T previously hosted the men’s Under-17 FIFA World Cup Finals, but they are also staging the Women’s equivalent from September 5-25 as a result of having the necessary facilities — a situation which undoubtedly has its genesis in an ambitious national policy on sports.

Again, an undeniable offshoot of the first event is that T&T now boasts some five internationally-accredited football stadia and are comfortably positioned to host other such competitions as a consequence.

Already, I can sense the whispers consistent with the age-old argument that our Caribbean neighbours are an oil-rich nation and can in fact afford to make this weighty investment. However, while conceding to the soundness of such reasoning, I daresay the reality lies more in the aspirations and long-term vision of that nation, rather than in any affluence engendered by natural resources.

Considering Jamaica’s limited sporting facilities; the archaic National Stadium which is approaching the half-a-century mark, and our apparent indifference as it concerns the development of at least another major stadium years after political Independence, Jamaica owes the impending hosting of the CONCACAF Under-17 Men’s qualifiers to its tourism credentials and its illustrious sporting tradition — not on any serious advancement in structural development.

And has been previously said in this space, the realisation of an authentic professional football league in Jamaica seriously hinges on its sporting infrastructure, which by the way is not limited to facilities, but includes proficient administration and a tapering down of the infamous bureaucratic red tape that tends to decorate the country’s business and economic landscape.

The fervent hope is that those who can make things happen cultivate the political will to capitalise on that reservoir of sporting talent by helping to provide some decent sporting facilities so that the many deserving youngsters can hone their skills in a civilised environment.