ISSA wants islandwide focus with JFF’s new U-17 competition

Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) president Keith Wellington has called for an islandwide focus after the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) announced its new U-17 football competition open to Jamaica Premier League (JPL) clubs.

Wellington insisted ISSA is not concerned about the level of competition being played on the island, but rather the number of competitions available for youth players.

With schoolboy competitions running throughout the first semester of the school year, Wellington said there is a shortage of competitions open to the age group in the off season.

As such, he is open to more competitive games being played at the Under-17 level.

“I think there is a shortfall in terms of competitive football that our 16-year-olds are afforded the opportunity to play. I think added competitions for this age group is going to be very useful for their development,” he said.

Some players at a disadvantage

However, Wellington has taken issue with the competition’s format. He said the JFF’s decision to open the competition to only JPL clubs puts players outside the Kingston region at a disadvantage.

Of the 14 teams in the current JPL season, six teams are from the Kingston and St Andrew region, with only six of Jamaica’s 14 parishes represented in the league.

Wellington said such a format would ignore the development of players outside of the Corporate Area.

“I have an issue with how the competition is going to be structured,” he said. “If it is that it is going to be open to only Premier League teams, then I think that it will not help our development to the level that we expect. It would mean that most of our youngsters would not be exposed.

“As things stand now, if you look at where the Premier League teams are from, obviously it means that there would be a heavy concentration of Corporate Area teams, with very little consideration for a kid from, let’s say, Portland or Trelawny.”

He suggests the focus should be on creating an islandwide competition that involves each parish, to ensure every player has a chance to compete.

He pointed to the example set by the now-defunct JFF/SportsMax Elite League, which saw the best players from each parish competing in a national Under-18 competition.

“Furthermore, I think that, at the Under-17 level, we do not have enough parish competitions where the players are actually playing and would be exposed. So my preference would be for a national Uder-17 competition similar to what they did a few years ago where they sponsored an elite parish competition, which meant that kids from every parish had the opportunity to participate,” Wellington said.