ATHLETES who represent their countries and are in need of help must get help, simple, no questions asked, not just track and field but every sport, football, cricket, netball, darts as well.

The situation of athletes not being able to make ends meet have been placed back on the front burner following yet another successful participation in the IAAF World Championships last month in Beijing, China, where the gap between the haves and the have-nots continue to grow even wider.

Sports men and women not being able to make ends meet and having to make sacrifices to continue representing the country is by no means a new issue, and many times individuals or even teams in need of assistance have been reported in the pages of the various publications of the Jamaica Observer and in various media entities covering sports in the island.

Whether it is the Green Island High School team wishing to participate in the Penn Relays or a national team wishing to take part in a regional or global event, their success is shared by all.

The plight of the athletes who were featured on national television has drawn a lot of comments varying from them being left on their own as professionals to some saying they should be paid.

Now we hear the Government talking about paying a group of 70 athletes a monthly stipend and the first reaction is that the Government should not be bullied by public opinion into paying out what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars to people, some of whom are hanging on to a dream that has long died.

In June 60 men entered the 100m at the JAAA National Senior Trials all trying to make teams to the IAAF World Championships, PanAm Games and the NACAC Senior Championships.

How many of these men would qualify for funding under the new scheme being set up by the Government where athletes would be paid a monthly stipend?

Come next year when the Olympics will be held, that number could swell to 80 and as per usual we will see people making comebacks as they chase the carrot of a place on the plane to Rio.

Hopefully, all this talk of helping athletes is not another talk shop or because of the impending general elections where votes will be crucial, a proper system must be seriously thought out and implemented or it could blow up in our faces.

Ours, I say, as it will be from taxpayers’ pockets that the monies will come. These monies to pay the athletes won’t magically come from the sky.

One of my main concerns is the category ‘developmental athletes,’ according to the minister with responsibility for sports. How are they going to determine this sub-classification? They can’t pay junior athletes or amateurs, and who will fall into this category exactly?

In Great Britain and other countries where athletes get subventions from the public pot, standards are set and rigidly maintained and athletes can lose their funding with poor performances or those that fall below the level required.

For example, at this past IAAF World Championships questions were asked whether the men’s 4x100m team should still get public funding after a series of dismal performances.

Need alone cannot be the only criterion for any athlete to get public funding, standards must be set; for example, an athlete must be ranked in, say, the top 50 in the world in their event, they must win medals at regional championships and must make the final of global championships to maintain funding.

Additionally, those on funding must make themselves available for Trials and events such as the Commonwealth Games, PanAmerican Games and Championships, Central American Championships and NACAC Championships as well.

Should athletes living and training overseas and who only travel to Jamaica to take part in National Trials be eligible as well?

We heard a list of 70 athletes who will be put on this new scheme, where did this list come from? Who compiled this list?

We sent a team of 53 athletes to Beijing for the IAAF World Championships, the largest ever and at least a dozen had professional contracts with shoe companies, while there were others who had to go to the pre-competition camp to get that final sharpening up.

The fact that must be stated here is that were any of these athletes that good, their agents would have been able to wring some sort of subsistence from all those shoe companies who are always trying to find ‘the next best thing’.

There are dire needs, not just in track and field, but most other sporting disciplines and the government must be careful not to waste taxpayers’ money, and careful thought must go into who will benefit from this well-needed initiative.