RAYMOND Grant says the proposed broad-based restructuring of the nation’s football is in no way targeting any specific group, but is designed to achieve wholesale revamping in the long-term interest of the sport.

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has undertaken a robust but “inclusive process” of rationalising the current football stock to ensure in the long run that its structures from the ground up will serve the long-term interest of the local game.

Since the governing body opened discussions on the matter, some individuals associated with the sport have opposed the new proposals that, in part, seek to merge clubs and local associations and a general realignment of a structure that is untenable and burdensome for a country this size which is lacking an authentic football culture.

“There is a myth out there that the restructuring programme is geared towards restructuring the Premier League, and that is absolutely not so… the board of directors have charged the Technical Committee to come up with a programme of restructuring, and this includes the restructuring of football islandwide to include basic schools, primary schools, high schools, various leagues in the parishes — and of course the Premier League being one of them — and all competitions played in Jamaica,” said Grant, the new JFF general secretary.

The former president of the Portland FA said it is a reasonable view that the country lacks the resources to bear the burden of the present formation that includes about 500 clubs, believed to be too numerous for the demographics of a small country like Jamaica.

“It’s the view of the populace that we don’t currently have the level of resources — be it financial, human or infrastructural — to carry the programme in the direction the football should go. Therefore the restructuring highlighted all the various support the football will require… whether it will be referees, coaches, infrastructure, human re-sources and of course financial resources,” said Horace Reid’s successor in a Jamaica Observer exclusive.

Grant, who recently resigned as vice-chairman of the Howard McIntosh-led JFF Technical and Develop-ment Committee, the body spearheading the exercise, said stakeholders at every level will be engaged in the process until a fine-tuned and rational alternative has been settled on.

“We have gone through the parishes and there are other stakeholders we will be sitting with. Having concluded the parishes, we have met with the Confederations also…

“We have already met with ISSA, and very shortly we will be meeting with JISA and Intercol; the government; members of the media fraternity, and all the various stakeholders.

“After completing that first phase, we will be having some public fora — at least one in [each of] the four Confederations for the next couple of months, after which we will compile a report, take it to the JFF board of directors, and they would instruct us how we proceed thereafter,” said Grant on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Portland native says while the federation is largely pleased with the quality of players the local leagues are churning out, there is still a lingering concern.

“The local leagues are producing; it is the consistency of the performances that concerns us… You would recall that many of the players overseas now graduated through our local leagues and, therefore, we must have been doing something good for these clubs outside Jamaica to be scouting from our local competition, so that is a plus.

“Our concern is that when we pull directly from our local leagues, the consistency from the players is of concern and it is something that the (relevant) committees in the federation will have to review as it relates to whether or not we are getting value… We will also be having discussions with the PLCA (in this regard),” outlined the 36-year-old engineer.

Even as the local competitions are producing players for the professional overseas markets, too often many have failed to measure up when given a shot in the national set-up, as was evidenced in the Reggae Boyz’s pitiful performance at the CFU Caribbean Championship in Antigua and Barbuda recently.