Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) director of football, Wendell Downswell, believes the continued absence of the country’s youth football programs and competitions will have a devastating impact on the sport over the next few years.

All official football competitions across Jamaica have been shuttered since March of last year, as the island battled to come to grips with the spread of the deadly coronavirus.  Included in that list are the island’s Premier League competition and all high school football competitions.

Both competitions typically cater to the need of developing players Under 21 years old who are selected for youth national teams and even acquire scholarships to overseas colleges through them.  

With the recent decision by FIFA to postpone the 2021 U-17 and U-20 World Cup and CONCACAF’s decisions to postpone the respective qualifiers, things are essentially at a standstill.

“You won’t see it immediately but in years to come, probably starting in 2023, you will see the results as it relates to our youth football itself,” Downswell told Football GPS.

“Youngsters if you look at it, in three categories, in four categories, at high school you have the U-14, Under-16 and of course the Manning Cup and DaCosta Cup.  At the parish level, you have the Under-15 competition, at the club level, you have the Under-14 competition that takes on an international flavor.  If you look from there you make the transition into the Under-15, Under-17, and the Under-20 national teams and you are looking at both sets of national teams, male and female," he added.

"If we look at it from the perspective that the schoolboy football competition has been abandoned because of COVID, you know the schoolboy competition provides us with a means to identify talent at both the schoolboy level and club level and when that’s not forthcoming it put a damper on our football.”

During the 2020 tournament the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL),  Jamaica Tallawahs partnered with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to showcase Jamaica as a fascinating and vibrant destination for all visitors, generating a sponsorship value of US$45.7million.

The 2020 tournament was played behind closed doors in Trinidad as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Tallawahs and Hero CPL worked hard to highlight Jamaica as a leading tourist destination. With record viewership of 523million, a 67 per cent increase on 2019, there was a huge audience watching CPL and hearing about what Jamaica has to offer.

The JTB’s9876543ASP[]\sponsorship of the Jamaica Tallawahs saw tourism footage featuring many of the “must see” locations in Jamaica shown throughout the tournament, with there being a special focus during the Tallawah’s “home” matches. In total Jamaica received a record 395 hours of brand exposure across the tournament.

 “We are delighted to see these numbers and it always pleases us when we are able to show Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean in the best possible light,” said Hero CPL COO, Pete Russell.

“The Hero CPL taking place in 2020 showed the world that the Caribbean was open for business and even in the most trying of circumstances it can deliver an amazing experience for visitors. Jamaica is a fantastic place to visit and we can’t wait to be back there as soon as possible.”

Jamaica’s Director of Tourism Donovan White highlighted the benefits of the partnership.

“Our partnership with Hero Caribbean Premier League gave us the opportunity to present the Jamaican brand to a large global cricket audience,” White said.

“An audience that included cricket aficionados and others from India, South Africa, England and Australia. Our association with Jamaica Tallawahs was well positioned and we are happy with the success of the television production.”

Jamaican-born Rugby League player Abevia McDonald has signed a one year contract with English League One outfit London Skolars. He is now the second Jamaican domestic player to sign a professional contract following the footsteps of Nathan Campbell who signed for the Toronto Wolfpack in 2016.

A former student of Excelsior Community College in Kingston, McDonald had signed a first-team contract with the team in 2019 but saw no action as the League One or the Championship were cancelled because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

He began playing while at EXED in 2013 and developed into a quality player who helped the Red Sharks to the National Club title in 2018. It would be his last game in Jamaica as he migrated to England shortly thereafter. He eventually joined the Skolars Reserve team and scored against Super League outfit Wigan Warriors.

He would go on to score more than a dozen tries for the team which led to his first-team signing in 2019.

"His journey is yet another example of inspiration for the local rugby league community. We know that some domestic players have the ability to crack semi-pro teams in the UK if afforded the opportunity,” said Jamaica’s Head Coach Romeo Monteith.

“We have and have had some quality players come through our local systems. He impressed me from the first time I saw him play, he has blistering speed and it's good to see him stick with the game and push on to where he is today."

Jamaican Olympian and former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell said he intends to get to that elusive mark of 100 legal sub-10 times and an Olympic medal before he hangs up his spikes.

Reggae Boyz manager Roy Simpson is to meet with representatives with midfielder Ravel Morrison after the player’s recent departure from Dutch club ADO Den Haag by mutual consent.

Jamaica international Ravel Morrison has had his contract with Dutch team ADO Den Haag cancelled by mutual consent, according to the club’s website.

The 27-year-old Morrison, who made his debut for Jamaica in November 2020, departs the club after just five appearances.

"The roads of ADO Den Haag and Ravel Morrison will separate immediately," the club said in a statement. "ADO Den Haag and Morrison have decided to terminate the 27-year-old midfielder's contract by mutual agreement.

"Morrison signed for one season at the Cars Jeans Stadium last summer. The Jamaica international has a history with Manchester United, West Ham United and Lazio Roma, among others. ADO Den Haag thanks Morrison for his efforts and wishes him the best of luck in his further career."

Whichever club Morrison joins from hereon will be the 12^th in a career.

Since he was signed by Manchester United as a talented teenager in 2010, Morrison has failed to fulfil the potential seen in him by then-manager Alex Ferguson. He did not play for the club and was eventually signed by West Ham United in 2012.

His time at West Ham came to an end in 2015 and has since gone on to play for Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City.

He made four appearances for Lazio in Serie A between 2015 and 2019, before stints at Ostersund, Sheffield United, Middleborough and ADO Den Haag.

A season of giving continued for double World U20 Champion and rising track star, Briana Williams, after a recent visit to the Office of the Prime Minister where she gifted Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness with printers for distribution to schools, as the country continues to navigate distance learning during the pandemic.

The effort was the latest in a series of philanthropic acts undertaken by the athlete, who also recently donated tablets to student-athletes and printing machinery to the Jamaica Cancer Society who produces large volumes of readouts of pap smears, mammograms, and testicular cancer screenings on a daily basis.  Williams also conducted a Christmas treat, in Montego Bay, in December.

The 18-year-old, who is also a patron of the Caribbean’s largest charity event, the Sigma Sagicor Run 2021, was lauded by the Prime Minister for her charitable efforts. 

“I am happy that our young people are being agents of change and are willing to help build our great nation through service. Keep up the good work, Briana,” he wrote on his social media pages.

For Williams, it was inspirational to meet the Prime Minister once again.  She was awarded the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in sports, in 2018, following her outstanding performances at the World Under-20 Championships and CARIFTA Games, where she won the coveted Austin Sealy award.

“It was an honour to sit with him and he was just so encouraging and inspirational. Just being able to speak to him about my training and my preparations was so uplifting for me. He also promised to match my donation by purchasing printers for distribution to more schools as well. I know that if each of us contributes in some way, we can help Jamaica recover stronger, so I’m just happy to play my part,” said Williams.

Williams was accompanied by her manager Tanya Lee and Dominique Walker, CEO of Printware Online who provided the printers.

Wolmer’s Boys School will join forces with top locally based track club MVP in a bid to turn around its high school track and field program.

The 14-time Boys Championships winner last claimed the title in 2010, on the 100^th year anniversary of the competition.  Though being typically there or thereabout, the school has not been able to consistently compete for the Mortimer Geddes trophy.

The shakeup will see the school part ways with noted high school track and field coach Danny Hawthorne, who took over the job in 2016.  The annual track and field event was cancelled last year, due to the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, but the team has finished outside of the top five for the previous three years claiming 6^th place positions in 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions.  MVP club president Bruce James, a former student at the institution, confirmed the existence of the new arrangements.

“The headmaster of Wolmer’s Mr. Pennycoke has invited the MVP track club to play a positive role in the redevelopment of the Wolmer’s Boys track team, this takes effect on the first of January 2021,” James told Television Jamaica.

“The Wolmer’s Boys school happens to be where the MVP track and field club was founded and the MVP club’s management consists of Wolmer’s old boys such as Stephen Francis, Paul Francis, Andre Edwards, so we are happy to help the Wolmer’s Boys track and field team and the program he is building,” he added.  

The Jamaica Football Federation has lauded the late Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, who died on Monday night in the United States from an undisclosed illness.

CONCACAF has announced the cancellation of both its Under-17 and Under-20 youth championships in light of FIFA’s recent announcement to shutter the FIFA U-17 and U-20 Men’s World Cups, scheduled to take place in Peru and Indonesia later this year.

The U-20 tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Honduras between 20 June and 5 July 2020.  However, following the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was initially pushed forward to later this year.  The U-17 competition suffered a similar fate.

With the spread of the virus continuing to affect safety concerns and travelling ability, FIFA announced the decision to cancel both tournaments last week.  With the CONCACAF tournaments serving as qualifiers for the World Cups, the confederation decided to follow suit. As part of the decision, FIFA announced the next editions will be held in 2023 at the venues that were to host the 2021 editions of the tournaments.

 Jamaica (1999, 2011), Trinidad and Tobago (2001, 2007) and Haiti (2007, 2019), and Cuba (1989, 1991) are the Caribbean teams to have qualified for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup editions.  At the Under-20 level Trinidad and Tobago (1991, 2009) Jamaica (2001), and Cuba (2013) have qualified to the finals.