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June 29, 2009
Jamalco Aims for Football Premier League
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Jamalco unveiled plans to expand its community football league competition to eventually field a football team that will play in the National Premier League.
Speaking at the launch of the 2009 Jamalco Football League competition at the company’s refinery at Halse Hall, Clarendon, Manager of Corporate Services & Government Affairs Leo Lambert said while the competition had, over the years, served a useful purpose in galvanizing the communities in the areas around the company’s refinery, “the time has come for the competition to move to the next level. It is time to reach beyond the ordinary and take the competition to the next level,†he added.
He said the vision was for the best players from the teams in the competition to become a Jamalco team moving through the various levels of competition until they become a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League.
Jamalco’s Managing Director Jerome Maxwell announced the company’s sponsorship of $1.3 million for the 2009 competition. The winning team will get $150,000 up from $100,000 in 2008, while the second place team will pocket $100,000, up from $75,000.
In his remarks, Mr. Maxwell noted that the Jamalco Community League had achieved its objective of providing an avenue through which players from local communities have developed their skills and have been called to play at the national level. He re-iterated the company’s support for the new objective of fielding a team in the Premier League and urged the players to be disciplined and focused as ambassadors for Jamalco and their communities.
The 2009 competition will include teams from the company’s port and rail road operating areas in Clarendon and its mining operating area in Clarendon and Manchester. Sixteen teams will participate in three zones with 11 teams coming from communities in the refinery operating area in Clarendon. The five other teams represent Mitchell Town near Jamalco’s Rocky Point Port, communities along the company’s rail road tracks, as well as the Mocho, South Manchester and Harmons mining communities.
The competition was endorsed by President of the Clarendon Football Association (CFA) Michael Ricketts and President of the Manchester Football Association (MFA) Dale Spencer.
Secretary of the organizing committee Dave Meikle noted that the committee, comprising representatives of the CFA, the community teams and Jamalco, had reviewed and drafted tough rules for the competition and that each team entering had signed a code of conduct that they would be expected to follow.
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