JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell has announced that the National Under-17 squad has been offered the opportunity to camp in Valencia, Spain as they prepare to partake in the June 18-July 10 World Cup to be staged in Mexico.

Speaking on Tuesday at the launch of this year’s Next Generation Valencia CF Kids and Coaches’ Camp at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston, Burrell said the JFF is awaiting input from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the private sector to confirm if the Young Reggae Boyz will make the estimated US$70,000 trip.

“We are hopeful that both the government and the private sector will give these youngsters the opportunity by providing the funding for them to take up this recent challenge.

“I’m just imagining these players camping in Spain and then going on to Mexico to the World Cup finals… that would be superb,” he said.

The seasoned football administrator praised the efforts of Spanish Ambassador to Jamaica, Celsa Nuno Garcia, and Next Generation’s founder, Victor Salazar-Chang, in creating the opportunity for the Under-17s and insisted that the camp in Spain would provide an ideal platform for success at the FIFA Under-17 Championships.

“The Spanish group has been very instrumental in offering this to the JFF and we have to thank the Ambassador of Spain and the Valencia group (led by) Victor Salazar-Chang and all the others who are responsible.

“Two-and-a-half-weeks’ training in Spain would go a far way in helping our players to gain a lot more confidence than they now have,” Burrell asserted.

He added that the offer to the Jamaicans is open for some time between late April and early May of this year.

A much-heralded six-week training camp in Brazil was the foundation for the team’s preparation for their successful CONCACAF qualifying campaign in Montego Bay last month, and Burrell is anxious to expose the youngsters even more ahead of the global event.

“The cry has always been that we’ve not been given enough exposure. We believe that sending our youngsters to Spain, into a professional environment where they would be living together and training together, would impact positively on their ability to perform.

“It would be an experience which I’m sure would manifest itself in the results,” said Burrell, who was in his first stint in charge of the Federation when the senior team (1998), Under-17s (1999) and Under-20s (2001) qualified for the World Cups Finals during a flourishing era of local football.

The Next Generation programme is a subsidiary of Taino Trade and Investments Limited, which is owned by the Valencia-born Salazar-Chang, who has been residing in Jamaica for over two decades.

Valencia Football Club is widely regarded as the third best team in the Spanish League over the last decade — behind Barcelona and Real Madrid — while Spain are the current senior European and world title-holders after triumphing at the respective 2008 and 2010 Championships.