Jamalco dream of top-flight football

Richard Bryan, Star Writer

Despite a difficult economic climate for bauxite, local alumina giant Jamalco intends to invest more in football, particularly through the medium of its popular annual community league, comprising of teams from the mining districts of Clarendon and Manchester.

The plan is, however, only part of a bigger picture, reflecting a huge ambition to rival its success in netball in national competition. These ideas and more were revealed at a recent press launch of the popular sponsored community league in Clarendon, now renamed the Jamalco Football League.

bigger investment

Jamalco General Manager Jerome Maxwell provided both the assurance of and rationale for Jamalco's bigger investment in football as he unveiled $1.3 million of sponsorship for this year's competition.

"Initially, we wanted to provide players to the national programme. We have achieved that and we want to go beyond that; we need a team that's going to do well in a national competition," he said.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Leo Lambert, Jamalco's manager of corporate and government affairs, as he outlined key aspects of the plan to a small gathering of media and clubs as well as members of the Manchester and Clarendon FAs.

"I look forward to the day that we will talk about a Jamalco football team at the national level," Lambert boldly told the audience."

"Just as the ladies have done with netball, that's what we want to do with football," he said.

According to Lambert, the plan is to assemble by next year, a team comprising the best players of the teams that participate in the regular community competition. This will begin after the preliminary round, where regional community teams will be named. Following the completion of that series, a final team of the best performers will then be selected. Jamalco will then get them to participate in a parish division one competition, from where they expect them to make their way up through the Confed, and eventually, to the nation's highest league, the Digicel Premier League