SUNDAY saw the conclusion of the CONCACAF U-17 Championships and, first, I want to give a hearty congratulations to Head Coach Andrew Edwards and the staff, along with the boys who represented us so well in Honduras.

To hold the US team scoreless over 180 minutes is no mean feat as that team was on a magnificent run of form during its two-year cycle, and the Young Boyz carried our flag high and proud. The tournament should give people an indication of the football talent that we have here in the island, but the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and we, the public, cannot afford to rest on our laurels, as there is still a way to go in terms of producing consistently good teams at the age group and senior team levels.

It has been clear for a while that football in the country is in need of revamping at the youth level. Yet not many changes have been made, and there certainly doesn’t seem to be a well-outlined strategy for improving our young players. So I will propose a few changes which I think need to be implemented.

Firstly, talent ID programmes from a young age need to be implemented and properly maintained in every parish. (It is imperative that rural areas are not neglected, as they usually are.) For players under 10 years old the focus should be on developing proper technique. Concentration on passing, shooting, heading, and controlling the ball with various body parts is the basic foundation of playing football, and there should be dedicated coaches at this level to ensure that as players progress to their teenage years, club and high school coaches will not have to worry about teaching players how to do these things and rather focus on the mental and tactical aspects of the game.

Secondly, and most controversially, club football should be the major focus of teenage players. This is something that will rile many due to the entrenched, historic nature of schoolboy football, but there are a few reasons this system is no longer fit to provide our football programme with the best players.

The short season does not allow players enough time to train and also does not give the majority of players across the country more than 10 games. It is full time that the major clubs across the country commit to having teams at U-15, U-17, U-19, and U-21 levels and full time that the JFF commits to developing a proper league system for these clubs to compete in 30 or more games from September to May.

Now, you will argue that most of the best players play all year round, as they partake in club competitions after the end of the schoolboy football season, but to counter that, the requirement to switch between sets of coaches and players does not provide the player a stable environment to consistently improve their tactical and positional understanding of the game. This is simply because different coaches have different views of the game and different training methods. Of course, a proper youth league structure will require major investment, but if a viable and well-thought-out plan is put in place, with specific and measurable objectives, financial support will come.

Thirdly, the governing body, whose mandate is to improve the level and reach of the sport, needs to appoint something akin to a youth development officer to oversee the development of our young players. Of course, this person would work in collaboration with stakeholders, such as parish FAs, coaches and the national team coaches, but their primary remit should be to ensure the creation and maintenance of a proper footballing structure that allows young players to learn proper technique, develop mental skills, develop tactical knowledge, and to train and play regularly in a stable environment. This might not take the form I have suggested above, but some change must be made.

During the recent U-20 championships many local fans and coaches, along with overseas scouts and agents, bemoaned the disappointing technical and tactical ability of our team. An exploration of the rosters of the teams that qualified for the U-17 World Cup shows that their players are selected from a club structure, while only the Caribbean teams maintained a focus on the school structure for their players. We cannot expect our level of play to advance if we do not provide a stable structure for our youngsters to play in, and I hope that the relevant parties take the steps in order to make this happen.

Machel Turner is managing director of Prime Time Sports Management Caribbean. Comments: machel.turner@gmail.com