LEFT: Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
The new Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) will bring the top teams together chasing a common goal.
RIGHT:
File
Chris Bicknell ...treasurer of the PLCA.
Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
BESET WITH financial burdens rising insurmountably with challenges to fulfil the demands of its professional aspirations, Premier League clubs have opened up the ball game.
Unlike their battles fought on the pitch for title supremacy, through a common goal that drives its very existence, they have combined off it - in the boardroom - to form the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) in an effort to make the business of club football profitable or, more realistically in the meantime, operate with less losses.
For years the clubs have been bawling about financing a seasonal budget which is light years ahead of any amount of money they could have made through the guaranteed combination of winning the championship's $2 million first-place award and a less than $800,000 grant provided through sponsorship packages and television rights.
"To run a proper professional budget in the National Premier League (NPL) will cost each club $20 million a year," noted Chris Bicknell, treasurer of the PLCA and vice-chairman of Arnett Gardens Football Club.
Three-time champions, they are one of few clubs that enjoyed a decent share of sponsorship outside that offered by the league. Arnett also have one of the biggest followings in the league and the best facility with massive stands on either side of the ground, excellent lighting, clubhouse and recreational centres. But even the 'Junglists', as they are called, struggled big time to make ends meet.
"It was evident that the way the league was running it couldn't work," said Bicknell. "The hand-to-mouth existence was deteriorating the whole quality and image of the league and its ability to attract sponsorship. On top of that, the majority of the clubs were broke. We were in a vicious cycle," he said.
New dawn
Very basic contractual obligations such as players' salaries were at times hard to maintain, especially at the back-end of each season and for clubs at the relegation point of the ladder.
In this new dawn, such a situation will become easier as one of the foremost and earliest defined tasks through this new association will see each club receiving $500,000 monthly. This takes on more significance in lieu of a new format, wherein the teams will now play four and not three rounds, with six additional games lengthening the fixtures to 39 matches.
This, though, is just the tip of the iceberg.
"We're towards the end of negotiations on many different sponsorships that will be revealed in press conferences in the next three weeks," revealed Bicknell.
He is but one of 12 PLCA directors - one drawn from each of the league's 12 clubs. The other members of the executive team include former Prime Minister and president of Tivoli Gardens FC, Edward Seaga, who is the chairman, Portmore United's Howard McIntosh (secretary) and Harbour View's Clyde Jureidini (assistant secretary).
They meet once every week, tackling issues that were normally handled by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).
"Our first role was to take over the procurement of sponsorships from the JFF and it really makes sense because the clubs are the real stakeholders in the league. We know how desperate the needs are and we are energised to go about and get the support for the clubs and the league," noted Bicknell.
He added "The whole objective of the association is to raise the level and value of the league, which will allow it to realise a lot more value. It takes all 12 clubs to be at a good standard in order to have a good league.
"We're at the ground floor now and already we're seeing better results of people buying into it wanting to move from the ground floor up," he said, "We're still far short but it's still a significant improvement over last year."
Cash Plus has replaced Wray and Nephew Limited as the new title sponsors, pumping in $150 million for three years. The PLCA has also secured deals with Wata, for the provision of its bottled products and cash; Lucozade, also for its refreshments - 100 cases; and Locker Room Sports for what will be the official match balls, the FIFA-approved Nike brand, as well as gear sponsorship for the five clubs that were not tied to an existing contract.
Additionally, they have taken over the payment of referees' fees and made a new arrangement for that to be done one month in advance, and acquired office space at the JFF headquarters in New Kingston.
"The JFF was in full cooperation with us at all times," Bicknell said, "they gave it their blessing".
The first-place cash award is yet to be finalised but Bicknell says it will be much better than last season's.
"The prizemoney, which is to be announced, is toward the end of the negotiations. It has not been finalised as yet, but I think it will be a good announcement."
No doubt, it'll be one of the more satisfying results gained from this new ball game the clubs are playing to ease their financial burden.
Teams hail PLCA as the way to go
Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NEWLY FORMED Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), which is now driving the $150 million Cash Plus Premier League competition, is being roundly endorsed by the league's participating teams.
They are of the united view that it has the capacity to lead them into a brighter future and the realms of professionalism.
"It is not only a step in the right direction, but had it been around a few years ago, I am sure we would be reaping tremendous benefits today," said Wendell Downswell, the national Under-21 coach and technical director of Reno. "It will allow clubs like Reno, to grow and realise its full potential in terms of creating a professional structure."
Midway through the 2006-07 NPL season, the astute Downswell publicly declared that he strongly believed that, with a $3-million injection of cash, the then cash-strapped Reno had it in them to go on to win the title. The funding never came, but Reno nonetheless finished third in the championship.
For Seba United's president, Orville Powell, the PLCA is a blessing for rural teams since it is poised to remove the perennial disadvantages teams such as Seba face when competing for the corporate dollar with their urban counterparts, who are often the more favoured teams by virtue of contacts and their proximity to the seats of corporate power.
"With PLCA negotiating for all the teams and a general agreement that we will derive equal benefit, we will all be on equal footing in terms of the support we will get," said Powell, "In addition, there will be no reasons for concerns about transparency since all clubs will be involved in whatever discussions take place and whatever decisions are arrived at."
While his club has shown the capacity to function as a viable entity on its own, Clyde Jureidini, a top executive of national champions, Harbour View, has also roundly endorsed the PLCA, which he is serving in the capacity as assistant secretary.
Fantastic way
"It is a fantastic way of bringing the clubs together and getting them to work together towards the common goal of building national football," Juriedini said.
"In addition, it is going to make the football environment more competitive since the plan is basically to bring all the clubs up to a level where they will become more organised and ultimately more viable."
Tivoli Garden's manager Brian Rose, whose club president, Edward Seaga, is chairman of the PLCA, says one of the most enviable features of the new organisation is the platform it is creating for the smaller clubs to benefit from the experience and expertise of the more established clubs.
"This will offer the newer clubs like St. Georges and Sporting Central a glorious opportunity to learn from the bigger clubs since they will be a part of all the discussions and negotiations that will take place on behalf of all the clubs," said Rose, "In addition, the guaranteed funding that will come their way will be cushion for the increase expenditure they will face operating at the national level."
While admitting to still learning the ropes of the PLCA, Everton King, the manager of St. Georges, has nothing but praise for the new organisation, which he believes will help in the overall development of his club as they strive to become an established outfit at the NPL level.
"It must be very good as it will allow clubs like St. Georges to function at the level of the bigger clubs," said King, "I have no doubt that it will work to the betterment of all the clubs and football in general."
From a national perspective, coach Downswell said the PLCA should be of tremendous benefit to the national programme in terms of the quality of players who likely to emerge from a programme that will facilitate their development in a structured programme where the clubs will be in a position to go out and secure quality personnel to run their programmes.
"I believe the national programme will benefit because this structure is geared towards producing better prepared players," said Downswell, "In addition, the emphasis on professionalism should have a beneficial impact on the players."
Overcoming the growing pains
Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
FAR FROM the days when local players eager to emulate the exploits of their international heroes hustled and bustled on the island's football fields just for the love of the game, Jamaica's national league has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few decades.
Don't laugh, but when Santos, then the dominant force in local football, won the inaugural Craven A National Club League Championships in 1973, they collected a grand first prize of $1,000.
Second place Boys' Town, who would find themselves in that position behind Santos for the next three years, were rewarded with $750 for their participation in the Carreras of Jamaica-sponsored competition.
Well, that sort of money wouldn't last most of us for half a night on the town, but don't scorn it just yet as the costs of things were a bit different in those days.
In fact, a year later, the title holders, who had won the new league in a 13-match season, must have been on Cloud Nine when they received an identical amount from Grace Kennedy in order to prepare for their title defence. The league itself saw a whopping $600 increase for the winners.
Skipping almost a decade later to 1982, the Cigarette Com-pany had increased its sponsorship amount to $35,000 and they would increase that amount by $10,000 the following year, but even then, most players these days would be insulted to receive that amount as a monthly stipend.
Winners Tivoli walked away with a cool $6,500 that year while runners-up Santos had to settle for the $3,250 second prize.
Then Jamaica Football Federation president, Hugh Perry, thanked the cigarette company for its continued involvement in the tough period. That was also the same year that the Craven 'A' National football competition was renamed the National Premier League.
The amount given to the league had more than doubled by the time 1985 rolled around with $100,000 pumped into the competition. Boys' Town, who collected their second title, won $10,000 while runners-up Harbour View received $7,000.
Of course, 2002 marked the end of an era for the local top flight as after 20 years the Cigarette Company's sponsorship of the premier league and local horse racing came to an end following pressure from lobbyists, chief among them the America Cancer Society, which demanded an end to tobacco companies being directly associated with sporting events.
Spirits and wine merchants then took things over pumping $1 million into the competition for a five-year period.
Now, once again, it's a new era for Jamaica's football with an unprecedented $150 million, three-year sponsorship deal by Cash Plus and another name change as the 'National' has now been dropped from the league's official title which is now, simply referred to as the CPPL. While details about this year's prize money and other incentives are still being worked out, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be more than the $1,000 Santos carried home in 1973. In fact, quite possibly, more than all the previous years combined.
NATIONAL PREMIER LEAGUE WINNERS
1973-1974 Santos
1974-1975 Santos
1975-1976 Santos
1976-1977 Santos
1977-1978 Arnett Gardens
1978-1979 abandoned
1979-1980 Santos
1980-1981 Cavalier
1981-1982 no competition
1982-1983 Tivoli Gardens
1983-1984 Boys' Town
1984-1985 Jamaica Defence Force
1985-1986 Boys' Town
1986-1987 Seba United
1987-1988 Wadadah
1988-1989 Boys' Town
1989-1990 Reno
1990-1991 Reno
1991-1992 Wadadah
1992-1993 Hazard United
1993-1994 Violet Kickers
1994-1995 Reno
1995-1996 Violet Kickers
1996-1997 Seba United
1997-1998 Waterhouse
1998-1999 Tivoli Gardens
1999-2000 Harbour View
2000-2001 Arnett Gardens
2001-2002 Arnett Gardens
2002-2003 Hazard United
2003-2004 Tivoli Gardens
2004-2005 Portmore United
2005-2006 Waterhouse
2006-2007 Harbour View
