President of the Jamaica Football Federation, Michael Ricketts, has consistently highlighted the importance of education to every part of society, including football.

In keeping with that philosophy, Ricketts announced last Thursday that, starting in September, the JFF will be providing a pair of scholarships valued at $300,000 each to two members (one male and one female) of Jamaica’s national youth football setups.

“We want to ensure that our players get some academic support. The JFF is very proud to announce that we will be providing two scholarships valued at $300,000 each,” Ricketts said.

“This year will be the inaugural year and this will be for a boy and girl out of a High School. That boy and girl ought to have matriculated to be a national player. A number of our U17s and U20s would certainly qualify for this initiative,” he added.

“This is something that the President dreamed about when I spoke to him about it last year. He said he wanted to do something for children and academics,” said JFF General Secretary, Dennis Chung.

“The Wisynco Foundation will be working with us and we thought it was important because we can’t just focus on the football side. We have to emphasize academics and push that,” he added.

Ricketts offered similar sentiments.

“This JFF has one single item on its agenda and it’s to grow the sport of football. We also want to make it very clear that it’s not just about football,” said Ricketts.

“We want to, from a commercial and a social standpoint, positively impact the psyche of every single boy and girl in this country,” he added.