A promise is a promise - McKay delivers kits to St Catherine teams

JASON MCKAY, chief executive officer of McKay Security and president of New Raiders Football Club, recently fulfilled a pre-election promise of delivering 32 kits to teams in the St Catherine Football Association.

However, only 20 teams were on hand to receive the gear, an absence, McKay hinted that could be through fear of association, following his losing bid to Elaine Walker-Brown for presidency of the St Catherine Football association.

Speaking at the handover ceremony held at Cecil’s Restaurant in St Catherine, McKay assured the teams they had nothing to fear, promising delivery of kits to the absentees.

“A promise is a promise in good faith, election or no election, presidency or no presidency. I have delivered, and that is what matters,” said the sports enthusiast, who also sponsors netball, pistol-shooting, horseracing and Jamaica’s combined martial arts team, which started day one of the International Sports Kickboxing Association’s Amateur Members Association World Championship under way in Vienna, Austria, with five gold medals on Thursday.

The kits, McKay pointed out, were “manufactured to specifications ordered by the teams themselves and will be distributed soon”.

“We have other great surprises planned this season for football, and are committed to working with administrators and teams who share a similar vision of what we believe local football can become,” he added.

During his speech, McKay also encouraged teams to invest in juniors, warning clubs against listening when persons who are not business people try to mislead them, likewise “outsiders to the parish”.

St Catherine’s Frazsiers Whip FC, the only Caribbean team to have participated in the recent Concacaf Women’s Champions Cup, benefited from a $500,000 McKay Security sponsorship, which went a far way in assisting the St Catherine club with expenses incurred during their home-and-away campaign.

Frazsiers Whip endured a tough Concacaf Women’s Champions Cup debut, exiting the group stage with four defeats in as many games, following their 13-0 home drubbing at the hands of NJ/NY Gotham FC.

McKay said the martial-arts template should be applied to other disciplines, including football.

“Football needs an annual national under-13 championship as a medium to identify talented players and mould them into a national team that can be nurtured into a formidable adult team.

“Training and competing as a team that represents Jamaica in age-group tournaments will create a team that can be a force as an adult unit. You have to play the long game if you plan to be a world leader in a sport,” he added.