Tony Becca
IN MANY respects, sport and Jamaica goes hand in hand, and for the simple reason that Jamaicans love sport, that Jamaicans are gifted in sport and that Jamaicans have excelled in almost every sport.
In football, for example, Jamaica has been to the World Cup; in cricket, Jamaica has produced some of the greatest players the world has ever seen; in boxing, Jamaica has produced a number of world champions; in netball, Jamaica has been among the best; and in track and field, Jamaica has produced gold medal winners at both the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
So good, so brilliant has this little rock been that in a sport like bobsled, a sport usually reserved for cold countries and their snow, Jamaica has also made waves.
As much as Jamaicans love sport, however, as gifted as Jamaicans may be, and as successful as Jamaica has been, there comes a time when one has to sit back, take a look around, and decide what, in terms of money, this country can afford in an effort, not only to continue enjoying those successes, but to enjoy new ones, and based on what is happening in football, the time has come to take stock.
Ever since the World Cup, Jamaicans have been talking about Jamaica getting back to the World Cup.
The talk has centred around bringing in a foreign coach and based on the history of Jamaica's football, the level of skill available, and the dreams and ambitions of the Jamaican, or rather some of the Jamaican people, nothing is wrong with that.
Public purse
The cost, however, is what is wrong with it, for the simple reason that this country cannot afford it - certainly not from the public purse.
According to what is going the rounds, a good coach, a good foreign coach, will cost about $130 million a year or $520 million for four years, and although Jamaica could probably get one for $65 million a year or $260 million for four years, a really good one will cost about $260 million a year or more than $1 billion for four years.
When one remembers that the minimum wage in this country is $145,600 per year, that nurses, teachers, police and junior doctors are underpaid and are crying out for more money, that some schools in this country do not have some basic necessities, that poor people walk the land every day, that the hospitals are not what they used to be or what they should be, that medication generally is out of the reach of so many people, and that water is like gold to some people in this country, it is difficult to support a football coach, or any other coach, being paid that kind of money by the Government of this country.
Recreational facilities
As much as we love to cheer our champions, the responsibility, the obligation of the government, of any government like Jamaica's, is to provide facilities for the schools and the youth clubs, to provide recreational facilities for all its people and to ensure that the environment is such that those with the talent and the ability, those who wish to move from recreation to competition, at the highest level at that, can do so.
It is not the government's responsibility to fund professional sport,
and this government cannot afford to do so.
Unless a sport is an industry, it is the responsibility of a sport to sell itself and unless football becomes an industry where, for example, players are exported and the country can earn from it, the funding of it, World Cup or no World Cup, must be done by the members of its fraternity, by the people who pay to see the players in action, if they can benefit from it commercially, by the private sector and certainly by television rights.
Jamaicans are proud people, they love to win and they love to cheer those among them who win. Apart from those who are not interested in sport and who simply do not care who win or lose, however, there are many, probably the majority, who, because of their economic circumstances, because of their need, would never forgive the government if it spends their money, so much money at that, on a football coach.
