Reggae Boyz still short of World Cup financial goals

IT’S THE Jamaican dream to make it to the 2026 World Cup which will be held in America, Canada, and Mexico in July, but the campaign trail attracts a big bill.

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Ambassador Tanya Lee Perkins, who is responsible for driving sponsorship and funding for football’s governing body on the island, said the financial support of corporate Jamaica and other stakeholders is needed to keep the campaign going.

“We have a budget of US$3 million, which is about JM$480 million, that’s what the JFF has indicated and so that is what we are looking for in terms of sponsorship and corporate support,” Lee Perkins said.

“I think we have about $200 million more to go to close the gap,” Lee Perkins told The Gleaner.

She said the team is poised to get more support to further close the financial deficit.

“We have one big announcement this week from a massive sponsorship, and that is a FIFA sponsor that is now new on board. We are pretty excited about what’s ahead,” she said.

With the expenses including chartered flights costing approximately $30 million for each of the three away matches, and the upkeep of 14 teams across both genders, the JFF says the financial support is needed.

“I have to say thanks to a couple partners who have been on board. There is a long list of them who have come on board to support our team in a big way, and of course, to the sport ministry, who actually gave $40 million in support of the charter flight for the team to go to Bermuda.

“We are happy to have had the support of a few very kind sponsors: Wisynco, who has been with the Boyz for about six years but, they stepped up in a much bigger way this year because they recognise the importance of this campaign. We have Just Bet, St Mary’s Snacks, Sunshine Snacks, Stewart’s Auto Group, JAMECO, who has provided a bus for the Reggae Boyz – lots of sponsors who have been on board.”

Lee Perkins has also personally contributed to the Boyz.

“For the last two matches [at home], we have had a jumbo screen here.

“As a Reggae Boyz fan, I thought ‘you can’t go to the match and not have a match clock (nor) jumbo screen.’ I was determined to make that happen and that is something I wanted to contribute, to lifting the standard of what we were producing on our field,” she said.

She urges more corporate and government support to get to their second World Cup after 1998.

“We are proud of the achievements of our Boyz and look forward to even more corporate support because we still have a little way to go. I’m inviting them to jump on the wagon now, because Jamaicans have a wagon mentality and I think that also spills over, in a sense, into corporate Jamaica because, some people who I spoke to who didn’t believe that we will make it and I think it is a little more obvious that the Boyz have what it takes. They will be at the World Cup 2026,” Lee Perkins said.