By Howard Walker, Staff ReporterOFFICIALS FROM English Premier League club Aston Villa visited the island recently to finalise a deal with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) with the hopes of setting up a youth football academy.
The seven-member team from Aston Villa arrived in Jamaica last Thursday and left Sunday after wrapping up discussions with the top brass of the JFF, whose president, Crenston Boxhill, had vowed to place emphasis on the development of youth programmes in his election manifesto.
Boxhill is set to announce the details of the partnership at a press conference after the Reggae Boyz' crunch match against the USA on Wednesday.
"Instead of every four years we scratch our heads and wonder if we can put a team together to try and qualify, (for the World Cup) we want to put something more substantial in place," said Boxhill.
"We are striking up a partnership with Aston Villa but the deal is not yet cemented," Carlton Barclay, JFF treasurer, confirmed to The Gleaner on Sunday, after escorting the Aston Villa officials to the Edward Seaga Stadium to view the Tivoli Gardens-Constant Spring encounter.
During the half time break between Tivoli and Constant Spring, one member of the Aston Villa technical staff presented gifts to Edward Seaga, president of the Tivoli Gardens team.
"They are assisting the JFF with some technical programme and they wanted to see a football game today so they were accompanied by an official from the JFF to watch the game," Seaga explained.
Kids at the match were presented with hats, badges and frisbees.
Aston Villa are sixth in the English Premier League on 21 points, 11 behind leaders Chelsea.
