Portland FA sets lofty goals
PRESIDENT of the Portland Football Association (PFA) Raymond Grant is determined to put the parish’s football on the fast track in keeping with the national agenda and international trends and best practices.
Recently re-elected unopposed — as was the rest of the executive — Grant has taken aim at moving the sport to the next level with the main targets being the upgrade of playing facilities, improving the competence levels of administrators, referees, coaches and other key players.
“We want to deepen the resolve of all the affiliates through management seminars, commencing at the end of September…
“Also, increased effort will be made to increase the number of practising referees and ensuring that the parish achieves at least one FIFA official by the commencement of the next term,” said Grant, who also serves as deputy chairman of the JFF’s Technical and Development Committee.
“We have mandated our affiliates to participate in all JFF coaching courses in both the JFF Advanced Level One and Two courses. We continue to participate at maximum capacity in management courses, match commissary courses and the FIFA courses afforded through the JFF,” he added.
In addition, Grant is looking to strengthen, firstly in the short-term, the partnerships with current sponsors, ensuring that their financial involvement is not only consolidated, “but increased over last season’s figures”, and to add new sponsors to the pool.
With regard to infrastructure development, Grant — a graduate of the University of Technology (UTech) — said he hopes to work closely with Member of Parliament for East Portland, Dr Ronald Rhodd, to forge a partnership to bring lights to Carder Park, the parish’s second main football venue.
The main venue, the Lynch Park complex in Buff Bay, had lights installed a year ago to allow for night matches at the fortress of former Premier League campaigners, St Georges SC.
“Lynch Park is at Premier League standard, thanks to the St Georges SC and Minister Daryl Vaz…. Dr Donald Rhodd has started the construction of stands at Carder Park and we’re working closely with him to achieve lighting for the facility, hopefully by mid-December,” Grant told the Sunday Observer.
Facilities at Boundbrook, Manchioneal and Hector’s River are also targetted by Grant and his team for measured development, which should include the installation of seating for at least 1,500 spectators and field upgrade.
Grant, the deputy superintendent of the Portland Parish Council,
disclosed that part of the focus of the administration is to broaden participation in the Women’s League, which started “during the last term”.
“In addition, the PFA will continue to mandate the clubs to manage at least two youth teams,” said Grant, who has acted as head of delegation for national teams to at least 20 countries.
The former chairman of the Eastern Confederation — an umbrella group of the football associations of St Thomas, Portland, St Mary and St Ann — said in response to the less than satisfactory overall growth of the sport in the Portland jurisdiction, his administration was forced to act.
“While much has been achieved, I’m not satisfied with the overall growth. As a result, I have reduced the number of affiliates to the existing number of 16 clubs with a clear view to strengthening their capacities, increase growth and… the overall quality insofar as player, management and infrastructural development are concerned,” he explained.
Grant added that the relegation of St Georges SC from the premiership last season was a bitter pill to swallow and it was a decided goal by his team to do everything possible to get one or more teams promoted in the coming years.
“The PFA and the general football fraternity of the parish are saddened by the exit of flagship St Georges SC from the premiership, especially against the background of the infrastructure at Lynch Park that was developed to assist in sustaining their participation in the league,” he lamented.
Efforts, he says, are already underway to ensure the team’s return within the life of the current administration, which was last week voted back in office unchallenged for another two years.
“To this extent I have tabled a proposal to the Eastern Confederation that seeks to strengthen parish leagues, which should create better opportunities for qualification to the premiership,” said Grant, who is in his third consecutive term at the helm of the PFA.
But like most things in life, it takes cash to care. And there is, it seems, not enough of it to go around these days.
The PFA head says its main source of earning has been through sponsorship of its leagues.
“Our financial records tabled at Congress have shown us receiving 75.7 per cent of our income through sponsorship for the 2010/2011 season and 73.7 per cent for the season before.
“This indicated that a great majority of the association’s funding is through the sponsorships we received from the Portland Co-operative Credit Union, Western Union, Victoria Mutual, Dr Donald Rhodd, Dr Lynvale Bloomfield and Minister Daryl Vaz,” Grant outlined.
The remaining income, he revealed, is derived from clubs’ participation across the six leagues, grants and gate receipts.
Grant, who also serves on the JFF’s Referees Committee, said his 10 years as a member of the JFF Board of Directors has aided his development as a parish leader in significant ways.
“The experiences gained are enormous — politically and administratively. I consider it as being within an institution of various challenges, focus, demands and personalities working to achieve one goal, which is to develop ‘the beautiful game’,” he said.
He added that his growth in managing the various aspects of football was encouraged one way or another by working with the top executives of the national board, past and present.
“My management capabilities have improved, having been associated with the present general secretary (Horace Reid) and his predecessor (Burchell Gibson) and the leadership presented by president Captain Horace Burrell,” Grant said.
The experiences gathered at the national and international levels, he noted, have proved vital in the day-to-day running of the PFA.
“I make it my point of duty to introduce changes to my governance based on the current demands of the sports, locally and internationally.
“Furthermore, I continue to impart the knowledge and experience gained within the assigned activities of my fellow parish colleagues,” declared Grant, a construction engineer.
Parish-born-and-bred talent of note who have gone on to greener pastures are Jermaine Taylor, Dever Orgill and Fair Prospect High School’s goalkeeper Eula Weber, who travelled with Women’s Under-17 team to the Dominican Republic recently.
Meanwhile, the other members re-elected unopposed for another two-year term at last Sunday’s Congress at the chambers of the Portland Parish Council are: first deputy president Garfield Fuller; second deputy president Dalmain Moore; general secretary Tamara Lawrence; deputy general Secretary Colin Hall; treasurer Daydrean Gordon; deputy treasurer Kerryann Harris; executive officer Athlee Cleary and public relation officer Everard Owen.