KINGSTON & St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) President Rudolph Speid has declared that the sport of football needs a change if it is to go forward.

In fact, he has also reiterated the call of Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), for better playing facilities to be made available to the players in the country.

Speid was speaking at the 2013-2014 KSAFA Senior Awards Ceremony held at the JFF Headquarters on Wednesday.

“One of the main problems that we face in football is the lack of good training facilities. The money that we are wasting on buying excess football boots and jerseys for the players, we can take that same money and use it to build a better training facility for these same players,” Speid said.

“The better training facilities we have is the better and faster our football will grow and this is a situation that we should look at and do something about in our movements going forward,” he added.

Speid said that Jamaica also needed to adapt Germany’s style of playing.

“German team players of today defend and attack with almost equal efficiency, regardless of position. This could be seen in the clashes of the semi-finals of the Champions League and the just-concluded World Cup.

“Basically they don’t depend on one or two players as their team is well-balanced and that is a style we need to adopt. We need to have an all-round team,” Speid noted.

Also speaking at ceremony, John C Bailey, product manager at sponsor Hi-Lyte, deemed the senior competition a success and said that his company will continue to support KSAFA in building the sport of football in the country.

“Well, this concluded senior competition was full of excitement as it showed up some talented players. With Hi-Lyte’s long-standing marriage with KSAFA we will continue to support them in their vision of building football in the country,” Bailey said.

Meanwhile, Akeem Higgins (Rockford FC) and Troyland Williams (Mountain View) both walked away with the top awards, Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the ceremony.

Higgins was the MVP for the Hi-Lyte Major League and Williams the MVP for the Super League.

Other top awards went to Geret Francis from Duhaney Park FC (Major League’s top goal scorer with 13 goals) and Fabian Nethersole from Santos FC (Super League’s top goal scorer with seven goals).

Other awardees were Paul Hibbert from Bull Bay FC (Major League’s winning coach); Shaun Charlton from Barbican FC (Super League’s winning coach); Maverley FC (Major League’s best attacking team with 43 goals); Mountain View (Super League’s best attacking team with 23 goals); Bull Bay FC (Major League’s best defensive team with eight goals against); Bevill Gressett from Bull Bay FC (Major League’s winning captain); Ramone McGregor from Barbican FC (Super League’s winning captain); Pembroke Hall (Major League’s fair play award); UWI (Super League’s fair play award); Rockford FC (Major League’s second place team); Mountain View (Super-League’s second-place team); Bull Bay FC (Major League’s champion team); and Barbican FC (Super League’s champion team).