The T20 cricket World Cup, the Paris Olympic Games, the West Indies 0-3 loss to England in Test match cricket away and their 3-0 T20 series victory over South Africa at home form part of a crowded summer for Jamaican sports lovers.

For many people, much has slipped under the radar, including contrasting results in age-group football.

Most recently, an apparently well-prepared Jamaica Under-14 team dominated regional competition in the Under-14 Tier 1 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Challenge Boys Series in Trinidad and Tobago.

The young Jamaicans defeated French Guiana 7-1 in the final to end the tournament unbeaten, while scoring 25 goals and conceding two in six games. Their triumphant run included a 2-0 win over always-combative hosts Trinidad and Tobago.

That success story was the very opposite of that in Mexico in July as Jamaica’s Under-20s, apparently badly under-prepared, lost 0-9 to the United States, 0-3 to Cuba, and 0-3 to Costa Rica in a Concacaf tournament.

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) was predictably preening after the success story in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We are indeed in a position to big up our coach [Mr Andrew Peart] … and every member of that technical staff who helped us win this CFU Under-15 Challenge trophy,” said JFF President Mr Michael Ricketts.

“This is something that puts us in a situation where, with the Under-17 World Cup now being held every year, we will need to put a contingency plan in place to ensure that all of our teams, from Under-14 to Under-17, are in training so that we can make that transition,” he added.

According to Mr Ricketts, world football governing body FIFA provided funding for the under-14 development programme through its Talent Devel
opment Scheme (TDS).

“We were assisted tremendously by [the TDS] programme…” Mr Ricketts said.

He explained that FIFA’s assistance allowed the national Under-14 training squad to spend quality time together at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence in Mona under the guidance of Mr Peart and his staff.

Clearly then, that approach will be needed consistently for all our age-group teams, even if substantial financial support is not always available from FIFA.

Hence Mr Ricketts’s assertion that “What we really need is for the private sector, Government, and parent organisations to come on board because we want to qualify for the Under-17 FIFA World Cup next year and establish a sequence of qualifications. But we must have an organised plan in place to ensure that the Under-14s make the transition, as well as the Under-15s and Under-17s …”

As we all know, private sector sponsorship can be had if potential business partners are convinced that their money will be well spent and that promotional benefits will accrue.

That’s the reason the business community has consistently supported Jamaican schoolboy football and other schools’ sporting endeavours run by the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA).

All available evidence — not least recent success in Trinidad and Tobago — suggests age-group football talent exists in abundance here. It seems to us that what the JFF needs to do is to so organise and execute its plans and programmes that potential partners will have no doubts.