We are encouraged by the deal signed between the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and multinational athletic and sports brand adidas as it speaks to the famous company’s recognition that there is value in a partnership with this country.

While Mr Rupert Campbell, who is responsible for adidas’ North American operations, would not disclose the details of the deal during an interview published in yesterday’s Jamaica Observer, he was clear that adidas is committed to making a significant contribution to the development of football here.

“I think it’s exciting. The Jamaica Football Federation could not have partnered with a better brand because of the heritage of adidas in Jamaica, what it means to the consumer, and what it means to the people,” Mr Campbell, whose parents were born in Jamaica, told our Sports Content Manager,Mr Andre Lowe.

Football is already the most popular sport in Jamaica, therefore any strong focus on grass-roots development, infrastructural and resource support for the national programme, global positioning of Jamaica’s footballing brand, and engagement and opportunity creation can only redound to our benefit.

Of course, substance must be to the fore, not just nice-sounding words.

For a long time our football administrators have articulated grand plans for the development of the sport, but those efforts have been mostly weak free kicks missing the goal.

Lovers of the sport will recall that in 2003 Mr Joseph Sepp Blatter, at the time president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), visited Jamaica and broke ground for what was intended to be a National Football Academy and Training Centre in Portmore, St Catherine. It was to be partly funded by the FIFA Goal Project, a development and assistance programme designed to bridge the gap between developed football-playing countries and the developing nations in Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean.

That Portmore project eventually fell through the cracks. And, after another failed bid in Malvern, St Elizabeth the project evolved to be the JFF’s Technical Training Centre at The University of the West Indies, Mona.

We recall that seven years after his initial ground- breaking in Portmore, Mr Blatter was again at the launch for what became the Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at The UWI. The Goal Project funding ensured playing fields, offices, dormitories, physiotherapy facilities, gyms, and parking lots.

However, despite private initiatives, there is still no genuine national football academy in Jamaica nurturing talented youngsters from a very early age for advancement in the sport. Basically, the island’s high schools have been filling that role and, while they have produced good talent, there are gaps in a number of areas that become very clear when the youngsters move to the next level.

That is one area in which adidas can make a serious contribution. The partnership, too, cannot ignore the vital importance of good playing surfaces as there are still too many poorly maintained, over-used fields that pass as home to some of the top football entities.

Based on Mr Campbell’s comments, adidas is taking to the field with an appreciation of what needs to be done to achieve success.

We wish the partnership well, for, as we have often said, football is big business.