Jamaica's bid for U-17 tourney taking shape

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Jamaica's bid to host next February's CONCACAF Under-17 Football Championship officially went into motion yesterday when the federation's general secretary, Ted Howard, toured and inspected three venues in western Jamaica.

These are the venues that will be used if Jamaica were selected to host the tournament.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be selected," said Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell, who, along with Howard, flew by helicopter into western Jamaica. "Hosting such a tournament would do a whole lot for our youth programme," Captain Burrell added.

The three venues visited were Jarrett Park, the new Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay and the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium at Florence Hall, near Falmouth, Trelawny.

While Howard did not say whether his report about the local facilities will be favourable, he nonetheless pointed out that countries such as Honduras, Costa Rica, Canada and the United States are also bidding to play host to the tournament, which is one of the premier events on CONCACAF's calendar.

Attention to region

St James FA president, George Evans, who was a part of the touring party to Jarrett Park and the Catherine Hall Stadium, said he would be happy if Jamaica gets the nod to host the tournament because of the attention it would bring to the region.

"We have hosted CONCACAF tournaments in the past and I believe we did a good job of it," said Evans. "In addition, in the previous two tournaments we staged, the Jamaican team did fairly well."

While some amount of fine-tuning will need to be done if Jamaica were selected, Montego Bay's Mayor, Councillor Charles Sinclair, said the JFF would not need to worry, as the St James Parish Council is willing and ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the Montego Bay facilities are ready and up to par.

"Whatever is required to have the tournament staged here will be done," said Mayor Sinclair. "We are a city with a rich sporting tradition and we intend to continue to build on what we have."

Reviving western football

Cognisant of criticism that has been levelled at the JFF re its hands-on involvement with football in western Jamaica, Captain Burrell said the bid to stage the tournament in the west is a part of the JFF's mandate to reelevate the western region's football to a position of prominence.

"Players like the United States' London Donovan and Demarcus Beasley came to prominence following their appearance at the last CONCACAF Under-17 Football Championship staged here in western Jamaica," said Captain Burrell. "Should we be selected to host this tournament, I am hoping that we will see a few of our youngsters coming through."